Four days after a Czech tourist was sexually assaulted in the early hours of Tuesday, March 5, Joseph Léopold, a 24-year-old gardener, has been arrested.
While he admits to having had sexual relations with her, he says that she was consenting, a claim she vehemently denies.
In the early hours of Saturday, March 9, this gardener working at a residential complex in Flic-en-Flac was arrested by detectives from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) with assistance from the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Western Division.
Shortly after his arrest, the suspect confessed to the sexual assault on the 38-year-old Czech tourist. He was scheduled to be charged with rape in court on Monday, March 11.
“I met the lady, I laughed with her, then I has sexual relations with her,” these were the confessions provided by the Bambous resident to CID detectives on Saturday morning.
In his statement to the police, Joseph Léopold confirmed to have seen the Czech national in the early hours of Tuesday.
She appeared intoxicated, he recounted, and was with a man on the main road in Flic-en-Flac.
The man is an Australian tourist, as indicated by the young woman in her statement to the investigators.
The couple went to the beach. After a while, they separated, the Czech woman turned back to go meet her friends in a bar and the Australian man returned to his accommodation nearby.
It was then that Joseph Léopold, who was watching her, emerged from the darkness.
According to the victim, the suspect suddenly appeared in front of her and forced her to accompany him to the beach.
In her statement, she alleged that he dragged her to the back of a food truck, located in a space dedicated to food sales, and tried to have sexual relations with her.
Faced with her refusal, her attacker allegedly brandished an iron bar, forcing her to comply.
The complainant specified that she did not consent to sexual relations with her assailant in her statement to the police.
Source: Defi Media
