A French court sentenced a former physiotherapist Friday to 15 years in prison for raping and sexually assaulting 10 patients and his 16-year-old niece.
Valery Gourbier, 56, was accused of abusing and raping women patients at his physical therapy practice in in the town of Villiers-sur-Orge, near Paris, from 2013 to 2015.
The court sentenced him to an even harsher term than the 12 to 14 years requested by the prosecution, ruling he had abused the “relationship of trust” he was meant to have with the victims.
First accused a decade ago, Gourbier initially denied wrongdoing, but later confessed to some of the charges in the course of the investigation and court proceedings.
Testifying on Thursday, he admitted to five of the seven rapes he was accused of committing.
Most of the victims were former patients.
He was also charged with raping his teenage niece during a vacation in 2007.
In all, 16 women testified Gourbier had sexually assaulted them.
Speaking before the verdict, Gourbier asked them for forgiveness.
“I have one word: relief,” a 34-year-old victim told AFP after the sentencing.
“The jury understood that he lied… that he was a predator.”
France has been shaken by a series of high-profile sexual assault cases in recent months, particularly the trial of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed for 20 years in December for repeatedly drugging his wife so he and strangers could rape her.
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