In France, women who accused rape and sexual violence asked for the removal of restrictions

In France, a group of women accused of sexual assault or rape are calling for the lifting of statutes of limitations that they say prevent them from accessing justice in criminal cases.

More than 50 women accused of sexual assault and rape by men, Jeffrey Epstein, former business partner and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel and billionaire businessman Mohamed Al Fayed have come together for the first time to demand changes to French law.

Currently, there is a 20-year time limit for adults who want to report sexual assault or rape to the French authorities and a 30-year time limit for minors from the date of the crime.

The women, who formed a collective called Survivors’ Voices, said during the press conference that the restrictions on reporting their attacks made them feel “no problem” because of the date of their incident.

“Rape doesn’t end, trauma doesn’t end,” Tisia Huseman said.

She said she was seduced by modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel in Paris at the age of 18.

In the year In 2022, he was found hanged in his cell at La Sante Prison.

Former BBC producer Lisa Brinkworth has revealed she was sexually assaulted while working undercover to expose abuse in the fashion industry by Gerald Marie, the head of Elite Model Management, and has announced she will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

In the year She posed as a model for the BBC’s Donal McIntyre Investigates documentary series in 1998, but reported the allegations to the police in 2021.

Her case against Marie was dismissed because the 20-year statute of limitations had expired in France.

After two appeals, including an appeal to France’s highest court, Brinkworth was told her charges were out of bounds and could not be pursued.

“At the time I was under orders (by people working for the BBC) not to cover the attack. I was in the middle of a very popular and very expensive television documentary.

“Then it was a big shame for the corporation to have a producer on the show under attack. I think that was a problem, but if I had reported it at the time, it would have either stopped filming for a long time or completely collapsed.”

She said she wanted to report the allegations to the police, but the evidence collected at the time was rejected by senior people in the group.