Mystery solved in French identical twins rape case

An identical French twin has pleaded guilty in a rape case that saw police detain both brothers - who have almost identical DNA - while they figured out which was the suspect.

Published: 7 September 2015 16:30 CEST

Mystery solved in French identical twins rape case

Photo: AFP

They shared a phone, a car, clothes, a Facebook profile and lived in the same apartment in Marseille.

But what they did not share was the urge to go out and rape young women.

But, because they have almost identical DNA, it took police months to figure out which of the twins committed the crimes.

The alleged rapist, 26-year-old Yoan Gomis, pleaded guilty to all three counts of rape, three attempted rapes and one act of sexual aggression when his trial opened on Monday .

His twin brother Elvin was also at the court in Aix-en-Provence.

Elvin had been held in custody for 10 months along with Yoan after the pair were arrested by police probing a series of sex attacks in the Marseille area between September 2012 February of the following year.

Both initially denied any wrongdoing

The victims had not able to tell the men apart in photographs police showed them, and as the pair had almost exactly the same DNA, officials decided to err on the side of caution and keep both in detention.

Yoan was eventually identified as the alleged aggressor after some victims recognised Yoan’s speech impediment, which is due to a hearing impairment which his twin did not share. Elvin was released.

The suspect later made a partial confession, admitting to attacking the women but not to sexual assault.

In court on Monday, he made a full confession, also admitting to the sexual nature of his attacks.

“I am sorry for having lied all this time,” Yoan told the court. “I was ashamed of myself, I just couldn’t admit it.”

Sentencing was due later in the week.

It is technically possible to determine differences in identical twins’ genetic code, but the process is very expensive.

Police intervened as dozens of students gathered on a central Paris campus of the prestigious Sciences Po university on Wednesday evening, management said.

“After discussions with management, most of them agreed to leave the premises,” university officials said in a statement to AFP, saying the protest was adding to “tensions” at the university.

But “a small group of students” refused to leave and “it was decided that the police would evacuate the site,” the statement added.

Sciences Po said it regretted that “numerous attempts” to have the students leave the premises peacefully had led nowhere.

According to the police préfecture, students had set up around 10 tents.

When members of law enforcement arrived, “50 students left on their own, 70 were evacuated calmly from 0.20am” and the police “left at 1.30am, with no incidents to report,” the police said.

The protesters demanded that Sciences Po “cut its ties with universities and companies that are complicit in the genocide in Gaza” and “end the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus,” according to witnesses.

The protest was organised by the Palestine Committee of Sciences Po.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said its activists had been “carried out of the school by more than fifty members of the security forces,” adding that “around a hundred” police officers were “also waiting for them outside”.

Sciences Po management “stubbornly refuses to engage in genuine dialogue,” the group said.

The organisers have called for “a clear condemnation of Israel’s actions by Sciences Po” and a commemorative event “in memory of the innocent people killed by Israel,” among other demands.

Separately, the Student Union of Sciences Po Paris said the decision by university officials to call in the police was “both shocking and deeply worrying” and reflected “an unprecedented authoritarian turn”.

Many top US universities have been rocked by protests in recent weeks, with some students furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.

The war in Gaza began with an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7th that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,305 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.