2023-12-22 18:18:00
The Brussels Court of Appeal had just handed down a judgment which sentenced him to five years in prison, including four years in prison and one year suspended with conditions. It thus increased the three-year sentence imposed in June 2022 by the 54th chamber of the criminal court. The court also invites the public prosecutor to communicate the judicial decision to the council of the Order of Physicians to which it reports.
Four years in prison for a doctor who raped a young patient in the emergency room of a Brussels hospital: he was arrested at the hearing
As Pascal L. appeared free, a cassation appeal from him would have suspended the execution of his sentence. The general prosecutor’s office requested his immediate arrest because the defendant was still active in a hospital. “With this ruling, he will not be able to continue to exercise any function as a doctor, emergency doctor or other. The risk of reoffending does not exist!”, replied the defense.
But the court of appeal did not follow the argument, considering that the convicted person risked evading justice. Previously, he had already failed to respect a condition of his release.
Three years in prison for a doctor who raped a young patient in the emergency room of a Brussels hospital
Misplaced gestures, once more
In September 2017, the doctor was arrested at the Brussels hospital the night of Sally’s attack. The investigating judge then released him under conditions, including never being alone to examine a patient. But we know how the emergency services work, overwhelmed and in dire need of staff… Six months later, at the Arlon hospital where he had found work, taking care not to mention the ongoing investigation once morest he, the doctor, had made inappropriate gestures towards a young woman in the emergency room. The Arlon file was joined to that of Brussels. At first instance, the court found that there was reasonable doubt in this case. The Court of Appeal considered, conversely, that there was sufficient evidence to judge the established facts. Pascal L. was also found guilty of harming the physical integrity of another patient at the Brussels clinic. Acts committed… three weeks before Sally’s rape.
Nothing prevents the gynecologist convicted of rape from continuing to practice
“In a state of vulnerability”
In a very detailed judgment (it is 75 pages long), the 12th chamber of the Brussels Court of Appeal considered all the facts established. The emergency doctor did not hesitate to sexually attack three young women, who made similar statements once morest the defendant even though they did not know each other, says the judgment. He abused his position as a doctor and the trust he inspired to undermine their sexual integrity, including rape in Sally’s case.
Regarding this prevention, the most serious, the court considers that all the elements in the file show that Pascal L. undeniably abused his position as an emergency doctor to satisfy his sexual urges on “a very young woman who had been entrusted in a state of vulnerability”.
She was sleepy but not unconscious
As a reminder, this evening in September 2017, Sally spent the evening in a trendy bar in the capital with her sister to celebrate the end of her studies. On her second Gin Tonic, she suddenly felt very ill. Maybe someone had slipped something into his drink? The ambulance was called…
In the emergency room of the clinic where she was taken, nurses removed her wet clothes and put her in a hospital gown. The young patient was drowsy but not unconscious. A doctor came in and asked Sally’s sister to come out of the cubicle. That’s when the rape happened. “We can’t imagine that something like that might happen there,” the victim commented during the appeal trial.
“He took advantage of the clinical examination he had to perform on the patient”
Yet this was the case. The defendant digitally raped the young patient, in the name of a so-called gynecological examination, and imposed caresses and kisses on her genitals and breasts, the judgment indicates. He thus undeniably took advantage of the clinical examination he had to carry out on the young woman to commit a gesture “which the patient’s condition in no way justified”.
The court of appeal considered that the 3-year sentence fixed by the first judges was not severe enough “in view of the extreme seriousness of the facts”.
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