A Jordanian national arrested on suspicion of raping a patient at a Parisian hospital last month was known under 13 different identities and had already ignored three orders to leave French territory, it has emerged.
The attack took place in the early hours of Oct. 28 at the Cochin hospital in Paris, when the 22-year-old suspect, who was a patient at the facility, allegedly attacked a 34-year-old female patient who had been admitted to the emergency room with a head trauma.
French newspaper Le Figaro reported that at approximately 4 a.m., a nurse interrupted the suspect who was raping his victim with his fingers while she slept. The suspect fled the scene upon arrival of the nurse.
In a press release, the APHP hospital trust confirmed the suspect had been “present in the emergency rooms as a patient being treated.”
“He was seen leaving the victim’s room by the service staff,” the press release adds, whose attempts to apprehend the suspect were unsuccessful.
The male was arrested by authorities shortly after 5 a.m. not far from the hospital in the 14th arrondissement of the capital; according to Le Parisien, he was found to be carrying the victim’s credit card.
According to Le Figaro, the suspect had been subject to three separate obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) under three different identities. He still had a request for asylum pending at the time of the attack.
However, BFMTV reported on Thursday that the Jordanian national was known to law enforcement under a total of 13 different identities.
According to the hospital trust and the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union, an investigation has been launched to ascertain how such an attack was allowed to take place.
CGT slammed a recent extension of the Cochin emergency department that took place “without an increase in staff, which further isolates staff and patients,” while the hospital trust confirmed “a precise analysis of the chronology of events is underway internally in order to shed light on the precise circumstances of this attack.”
