A 52-year-old Moroccan national has been arrested in France on suspicion of raping a 4-year-old girl in a hotel room while the victim’s father drank downstairs in the hotel bar.
As reported by France Bleu, the incident allegedly took place on Feb. 15 at a hotel in the Font-Romeu ski resort in Pyrénées-Orientales.
According to initial findings, the young girl was on vacation with her father and was sleeping alone in a room on the third floor of the hotel while he spent time at the hotel bar. After the establishment closed, the father continued his night at another venue. Upon returning to the hotel at around 3 a.m., he found his daughter in shock.
He claimed to have made periodic checks on his child throughout the evening to ensure she was safe.
DNA analysis is understood to have been undertaken but the results of this have not been published.
The investigation led the French police and the Perpignan prosecutor’s office to the Moroccan national, a bartender working at the hotel, two days after the incident.
He was placed in police custody and indicted, and remains in pre-trial detention following an initial court hearing.
The suspect vehemently denies the allegations and his defense attorney has appealed his pre-trial detention, insisting her client has done nothing wrong.
“My client claims his innocence. He is struggling to comprehend what is happening to him. He describes the situation as a nightmare,” said lawyer Roxane Césari.
The appeal against detention was heard by a court in Montpellier on Feb. 25 with a decision expected on March 4.
According to Césari, her client is homosexual and has “no attraction to women, let alone children.”
The suspect has been working legally in France for around 35 years. It is unknown if he has any prior convictions.