Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

METRO

Suspended jail term for man filmed masturbating on Paris Metro

A French court on Monday sentenced a man to eight months suspended jail after he masturbated on the Paris Metro in front of a woman.

Published: 17 June 2019 17:24 CEST
Suspended jail term for man filmed masturbating on Paris Metro
Many women have reported similar experiences on the Paris Metro. Photo: AFP

The Bangladeshi man, 48, who works in the fast food industry, was ordered to pay €500 in damages to the woman as well as another woman who had reported the same behaviour.

He was also ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment.

READ ALSO

The 20-year-old woman who filmed him posted the video on Twitter on December 12 and asked the Paris transport authorities to take action. She also filed a complaint for indecent exposure.

The video went viral and several women reported recognising the man and recalling similar offences. A second woman then filed another complaint.

The man gave himself up to the police.

A psychiatrist who examined the man said that he was addicted to sexual fantasy, while the man said he had suffered due to an operation on his testicles several years back.

Both plaintiffs emphasised at the hearing this was not the first time that they had experienced this.

According to French statistics published in 2017, some 267,000 people, mainly women, reported suffering sexual harassment on public transport in 2014 and 2015.

Earlier this year a French feminist group launched a fresh campaign against sexual harassment on the Metro, which many female commuters say is an endemic problem on the city's transport network.

They also announced they would take legal action against transport operator RATP; saying they had not done enough to counter the problem.

RATP strongly denied this, saying it had rolled out more than 50,000 functional cameras, 5,300 agents in stations and 1,000 security agents on the network.

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

STRIKES

Striking workers block Paris airport terminal, flights delayed

Striking airport workers have blocked part Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, with some flights already delayed by at least one hour.

Published: 2 July 2021 12:29 CEST
Striking workers block Paris airport terminal, flights delayed
Striking airport workers outside Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris. Photo: Geoffroy van der Hasselt | AFP

Last month, trade unions representing workers at the Aéroports de Paris (ADP) – the city’s Charles-de-Gaulle-Roissy and Orly airports – called for a strike between July 1st and July 5th in an ongoing dispute between French airport workers and bosses over contract renegotiations.

A second wave of protests are expected next week, after a strike notice was filed for July 9th.

Tensions mounted on Friday morning as some 400 protesters staged a raucous demonstration at CDG’s terminal 2E, which mostly deals with flights outside the Schengen zone, as police officers looked on.

At Orly airport, meanwhile, some 250 people demonstrated “outside”, while a small group was inside.

The dispute is over a long-term plan by ADP to bring in new work contracts for employees at the airports, which unions say will lower pay, job losses and a reduction in rights and bonuses for employees.

The strike is being jointly called by the CGT, CFE-CGE, Unsa, CFDT and FO unions, who said in a joint press release that the proposals will “definitively remove more than a month’s salary from all employees and force them to accept geographical mobility that will generate additional commuting time”.

Unions say that staff face dismissal if they do not sign the new contracts.

ADP said on Wednesday that it expected ‘slight delays for some flights but no cancellations’ to services – but it urged travellers to follow its social media operations for real-time updates.

On Thursday, the first day of action, 30 percent of flights were delayed between 15 minutes and half-an-hour.

ADP’s CEO Augustin de Romanet had said on Tuesday that ‘everything would be done to ensure no flight is cancelled’. 

ADP reported a loss of €1.17 billion in 2020. 

Stressing that discussions are continuing over the proposed new contracts, the CEO called for “an effort of solidarity, with a red line: no forced layoffs.”

SHOW COMMENTS