#excaretaker #accused #serial #rape #trial #France
A former janitor accused of dozens of rapes and sexual assaults in France and Belgium over several decades will go on trial in France on Friday after admitting a string of assaults.
Dino Scala, known as the “rapist of the Sambre” – after the river near several towns along the Franco-Belgian border where he operated – was arrested in northern France in 2018.
He confessed to around 40 rapes and assaults, which he attributed to uncontrollable “compulsions”.
The youngest victim was 13, the oldest 48, and most were attacked in much the same way – surprised on deserted roads in the early winter hours, strangled and dragged into nearby bushes or trees.
Scala, now 61, is a former industrial site caretaker who was also manager of a local football club and was described as well-integrated and outgoing by locals in his town of Pont-sur-Sambre following his arrest.
“He was free from the start” and wanted to “explain himself and answer the questions,” said his lawyer Margaux Mathieu.
He faces 17 reports of rape, 12 attempted rape and 27 sexual assault or attempts – for a total of 56 victims, although investigators suspect there were other victims who did not report to police.
“They hope to finally put what happened to them behind them, to have the beginning of an explanation and to be heard and understood,” said attorney for three of his accusers, Caty Richard.
Police were looking for the suspect in November 1996, when a 28-year-old woman said she was raped alongside a highway near Maubeuge. Investigators found the attacker’s DNA at the scene but found no matches in police databases.
Other similar attacks followed with more than 15 alleged victims in two years.
Despite increased patrols, the attacker was never found and the case was closed in 2003.
But three years later, a new spate of assaults in Belgium restarted the investigation, and police began to suspect other previous cases in the area could be linked to the same man.
It was only in February 2018, when a teenager was attacked in Erquelinnes, Belgium, that CCTV cameras spotted a Peugeot car at the scene, and Scala was arrested a few weeks later.
Searches uncovered a knife, gloves and string that could have been used as garrottes, and DNA comparisons were made at several crime scenes.
After his arrest, he told investigators how he carried out his attacks.
“I hung out … I watched where women walked by,” he said.
“I like being mysterious and hiding… I have a hunter’s nature.”
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