A group of women, who have alleged sexual assault or rape in France, are calling for the abolition of the statute of limitations which they say has prevented them seeking justice in criminal proceedings.
It is the first time more than 50 women alleging sexual assault and rape by men, including Jeffrey Epstein, his former business partner and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel and billionaire businessman Mohammed Al Fayed, have come together collectively to demand the change to French law.
Currently, there is a 20-year statute of limitations for adults wanting to report to sexual assault or rape to French authorities and a 30-year limitation from the date the crime occurred if they were a minor.
The women, who have formed a collective called Survivors’ Voices, said during a press conference, the restriction of reporting their assaults makes them feel like their case “doesn’t matter simply because of the date” it occurred.
“Rape doesn’t expire, trauma doesn’t expire,” Thysia Husiman said.
She alleges she was raped at the age of 18 in Paris by model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
He was found hanged in his cell in La Santé prison in 2022 whilst being held on suspicion of the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation.
Former BBC producer Lisa Brinkworth, who claims she was sexually assaulted while working undercover to expose abuse in the fashion industry by Elite Model Management boss Gerald Marie, announced she was taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights.
She posed as a model in a documentary for the BBC’s Donal McIntyre Investigates series in 1998, but reported her allegation to police in 2021.
Her case against Marie was dismissed because her 20-year statute of limitations had ran out in France.
After two appeals, including an appeal to France’s highest court, Brinkworth was told her case exceeded the statute of limitations and could not be pursued.
“At the time I was directed not to report the assault [by people who worked for the BBC]. I was in the middle of a high profile, very expensive television documentary series.
“Then to have a producer on the show who was assaulted was a huge embarrassment to the corporation. I think it was an inconvenience but it also meant that had I reported it at that time filming would have stalled for however long or probably disbanded altogether.”
She also said, even if she had wanted to report the accusation to police, evidence gathered at the time was denied to her by senior people on the team.
