In France, a 24-year-old man, Mohammed D., has now been sentenced to nine years in prison after he snuck through a window and raped a building caretaker at knifepoint in a case that dates back to the summer of 2023.
The Paris Assize Court sentenced the man to nine years in prison on Jan. 16, 2026, for an incident that dates back to Aug. 7 to Aug. 8, 2023, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris.
The victim, a woman in her sixties who served as the caretaker of the building on Boulevard de Charonne, had left her apartment window open due to the summer heat.
Mohammed D., who was 22 at the time, entered the residence illegally. The victim discovered him as he was “rummaging in his living room.” Following this confrontation, the accused raped the woman at knifepoint. The victim eventually managed to escape the apartment and alert authorities.
The perpetrator was apprehended four days after the attack by municipal police near the station “from Argenteuil” in Val-d’Oise. Upon his arrest, he admitted to the crimes and provided a full confession.
A judicial source confirmed the man received nine years in prison, a ban on French territory, a 15-year ban on carrying a weapon, and registration a sex offender.
Following the verdict, French newspaper Actu Paris reported that it offered closure in a case that has “frozen” the local community due to the horrific nature of the rape.
Remarkably, the case is very similar to a more recent case from just last month, which involved an unknown man raping a 72-year-old woman. The elderly French woman was simply trying to close the window to her apartment when an unidentified individual slipped into her home to rape and rob her in the “sensitive” Mureaux district in Yvelines, outside Paris. The neighborhood is known for its extremely high number of North African residents.
The incident, which happened on Dec. 15, involved an unidentified suspect who, according to police, “hit her and then dragged her to her room before tying her up. He pinned her to the ground, took off her clothes and penetrated her vaginally. The attacker then stole several objects from the victim’s home before leaving the scene.”
DNA in the case was retrieved by police and an investigation is ongoing.
Other cases involving men crawling in through victim’s windows and often sexually assaulting a victim, have been widespread, including in Switzerland.
