2023-04-17 05:51:00
On Saturday, the Alpes-Maritimes Assize Court found Olivier Benham, a 36-year-old father with no previous history, guilty of “rape” and “sexual assault on vulnerable people by anyone abusing the authority of his office”. .
Accused by four residents of a home for disabled adults in Vence, where this physiotherapist practiced, he was sentenced to fifteen years of criminal imprisonment and the prohibition to exercise his professional activity permanently. His lawyer “appealed the decision”, also learned 20 Minutes at the registry.
” I am innocent “
During the trial, the 30-year-old, who has already spent eleven months in detention, continued to deny. “I have never committed the acts for which I am accused, I am innocent,” he said once more in tears on Saturday, invited to speak last, just before the opening of the deliberations, reported Nice morning.
The victims, who all four suffer from autistic, physical and psychological disorders, had testified during the week, recounting, in particular with gestures, the acts they explained to have suffered. Me Franck Berton, in defense, estimated according to the regional daily that there was no “notion of lie” for autistic people but that “the perception of reality might be different”.
The jurors finally went beyond the requisitions of the prosecution, which claimed twelve years in prison. A court of appeal will have to consider this case once more.
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