An African suspect is in custody after at least five elderly women were sexually assaulted inside a hospital in France over the weekend, according to reports.
The shocking string of attacks unfolded on the night of June 27 at the Robert-Ballanger Hospital in Villepinte, a commune in the Paris suburbs.
A male vagrant in his forties from the Republic of Mali was treated at the emergency room for unspecified reasons before roaming the corridors of the facility for hours, law enforcement sources told Valeurs Actuelles.
The suspect began approaching females patients and exposing his privates parts while demanding they engage in sexual acts with him.
Five women born between 1936 and 1940 reported being targeted by the man to hospital staffers who notified local police.
The suspected predator was taken into custody by law enforcement.
An investigation revealed he had previously been reported for sexually inappropriate behavior in the hospital.
“This ‘code of silence’ specific to the hospital environment is sometimes accompanied—as was the case in Villepinte—by another taboo: the rape of elderly women,” wrote French journalist Jean Kast.
“These barbaric crimes are on the rise in France amid a deafening silence from politicians and the media.”
