On Saturday, the Assize Court of Alpes-Maritimes found Olivier Benham, a 36-year-old father with no record, guilty of "rape" and "sexual assault on vulnerable people by person abusing the authority of his office".
Accused by four residents of a home for disabled adults in Vence, where this physiotherapist worked, he was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment and a ban on exercising his professional activity permanently. His lawyer "appealed the decision," 20 Minutes also learned from the registry.
"I am innocent"
During the trial, the thirty-year-old, who has already spent eleven months in detention, has continued to deny. "I have never committed the facts I am accused of, I am innocent," he said again in tears Saturday, invited to speak last, just before the opening of deliberations, reported Nice-Matin.
The victims, all four of whom suffer from autistic disorders, physical and psychic, had testified during the week, recounting, in particular with gestures, the acts they explained to have suffered. Me Franck Berton, in defense, estimated according to the regional daily that there was no "notion of lying" for autistics but that "the perception of reality could be different".
The jurors finally went beyond the prosecution's request, which demanded twelve years in prison. An appeals court will have to reconsider the case.
- Justice
- Nice
- Alpes-Maritimes
- PACA
- Disabled
- Rape
- Sexual assault
- Assize Court
- Health