A WOMAN endured a 30-minute sex assault in Lille Metro, while fellow passengers and passers-by did nothing.
The 29-year-old mother-of-four’s ordeal began at 10.30pm on Tuesday, when she was approached by a visibly drunk teenager on the platform of the subway, a court in Lille heard.
The man threatened her, before kissing her and touching her inappropriately, Voix du Nord reports.
The victim told the court in Lille: "I screamed for help. I begged for help."
But other passengers, who were also waiting on the subway, did nothing, she said.
"I found myself near a man, he did not want to know. He did not help me,” she said.
“Nobody helped me. I had to defend myself alone.”
The woman got on a train, but was followed by her 19-year-old attacker, who continued his assault in view of other passengers and CCTV cameras. Footage shows five people apparently deliberately avoiding getting into the carriage where the crime was taking place.
The woman said: “There were a lot of people. I just wanted someone to help me.”
The woman fled at the next station, but her attacker chased her and tried to continue his assault in the street. Her ordeal only stopped when the young driver of a passing car came to the woman’s aid.
Lille prosecutor Frédéric Fèvre called on police to launch an investigation to see if anyone could be prosecuted for failing to assist a person in danger.
The judge at the court in Lille yesterday sentenced the 19-year-old sex attacker, who is a Morocco national, to 18 months in prison, after which he will be deported from France and banned from re-entering the country for two years.
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