Alain Pidolle

20 Minutes
Strasbourg: A former psychiatrist sentenced to 13 years in prison for rape and sexual assault
May 20, 2018

The hearing was held behind closed doors. A former psychiatrist accused of rape and sexual assault by former patients was sentenced on Saturday to 13 years in prison by the Bas-Rhin Assize Court . Alain Pidolle was found guilty of raping two of his former patients and sexual assault on three others.

Aggravating circumstances for these acts, “committed to a vulnerable person by a person abusing the authority conferred on him by his position”, were also retained.

Five young women had become civil parties
Arrested in 2013, Dr. Pidolle had been indicted on the basis of accusations by a 17-year-old girl at the time , claiming to have been touched at the doctor’s home in December 2012. Following media coverage From this first complaint , other young girls had come forward and had filed a complaint for sexual assault and some for rape, mainly in 2012.

Before the court of Strasbourg , five young women had become civil parties, as well as the council of the order of doctors. The hearing was held behind closed doors, at the request of one of the civil parties.

According to him, “it was a consensual relationship”
White hair, neat goatee and thin dark glasses, he appeared before the Bas-Rhin Assize Court on Monday as a “retired doctor”. He appeared free under judicial supervision, after having served three years of preventive detention.

According to a lawyer for the civil parties, Me Laure Desforges, the practitioner admitted at the hearing to a sexual relationship with a victim but affirmed “that it was a consensual relationship”.