A hotel night watchman in France has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old British girl while she was on holiday with her family.
The 46-year-old was arrested in June after he was accused of assaulting the teenager in Dijon.
The teenager, who was holidaying in the historic French city, had gone out into the hotel corridor to talk on the phone at around 2am when she crossed paths with the watchman.
The hotel employee admitted to the act, but told a court in Dijon that he believed he had ‘charmed’ the British teenager.
‘I regret going up the stairs that night, but I heard a noise, and I’m sorry I could have thought I might have charmed a 17-year-old girl.’
‘I am not a monster,’ he added.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday.
The watchman appeared in court in August and requested to be released, but judges decided to keep him in pretrial detention.
The incident happened in the French town of Dijon (file image)
The assault of a British tourist in France comes a year after a UK woman was repeatedly raped by a taxi driver following a night out with friends in Paris.
And in August 2024, a 34-year-old British tourist was raped after being drugged in a Paris bar.
She had gone to dinner that night and took one of the group to a hookah bar in the 16th arrondissement at around 4am the following morning after being invited by a man they had met that night.
She told police that her next memory was waking up in an unfamiliar room, before realising she had been raped, according to local media.
Just a month prior, harrowing security footage revealed the moment a visibly distressed Australian woman sought refuge inside a Paris kebab shop after being gang raped – only to be confronted by one of the men who had assaulted her minutes earlier.
