Paris:
A photographer went on trial in France on Monday, accused of raping women he seduced on dating apps and promised to photograph them.
Prosecutors said Salim Berrada invited women he found online to pose for modeling photos in 2015 and 2016 and assaulted them during the encounters.
The 38-year-old defendant denied the allegations and said the sexual relations were consensual.
He told investigators that 17 of his accusers may have regretted the encounter and agreed to file a joint complaint against him.
Some of the women, mostly in their 30s, did not attend Monday’s court appearance.
“She doesn’t have the mental strength to be here,” one of their lawyers said of her client.
Investigators said they found an “industrial-like” pattern in the online tactics employed by Berrada, who they say used his reputation as a photographer to attract women.
He promised women photo shoots using detailed steps carefully laid out in an Excel spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet contained a series of key phrases he used to attract, compliment and proposition the women he targeted at scale online, telling them they were “one of a kind” or his “muses.”
Prosecutors said he gave them a drink when they arrived for a modeling class. Once they did, they experienced an unusual, rapid onset of intoxication and sudden weakness, which investigators said suggested the drinks had been spiked with chemicals.
The women later described Berarda’s sudden change of attitude and said he forced it on them despite their objections.
Berrada was first arrested in 2016 and spent two and a half years in prison awaiting trial before being released under judicial supervision and banned from working as a photographer.
Last July he was jailed again and again accused of rape and sexual assault following a fresh wave of legal complaints.
An investigation into the new allegations is ongoing.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
