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A Guinean migrant living illegally in France has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the rape of an 83-year-old woman during a daytime burglary at her home in La Penne-sur-Huveaune last year.
The attack took place on Feb. 17, 2024, at about 2 p.m., when the victim, identified in court as Odette, heard a noise in her house and went to investigate. According to testimony read in court, she came face to face with a man described as “African-looking,” wearing a black hat and a “very flashy” orange jacket. The intruder allegedly demanded money; when she said she had none, he reportedly replied, “You know what’s going to happen.” Prosecutors say he then raped her, leaving with a small amount of valuables.
As reported by La Provence, neighbors later found Odette disoriented in the street, and she was taken to the Conception Hospital in Marseille. Medical staff recorded traumatic injuries consistent with the alleged assault, and forensic testing recovered semen traces on the victim’s clothing that matched the suspect’s DNA.
An owl key ring belonging to the victim was reportedly recovered where the suspect had been staying.
The man convicted by the Bouches-du-Rhône Departmental Criminal Court was identified in court documents as Mamadi Cissé, said to be about 35 years old and originally from Guinea. He was arrested the day after the assault and identified by the victim in a photographic lineup.
In court, Cissé admitted the theft of items from the house but denied the sexual offense, answering through an interpreter with “No, I didn’t do anything,” “I don’t remember,” and “I don’t know,” and later telling the court, “I didn’t rape her.”
The trial heard that Cissé had a complex personal history. He was said to have arrived in France after a migration route that included Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Italy, and to have been living homeless in a tent on the Prado in Marseille.
Court papers state he had an outstanding obligation to leave French territory — an OQTF — that had been served about a month before the attack. He was also known to police for recent thefts.
Psychiatric reports introduced at the hearing described serious mental-health concerns. An expert had previously judged Cissé incompatible with police custody, and he was placed in a psychiatric hospital, where examiners noted delusions and schizophrenic disorders.
Cissé’s defense lawyers told the court that he had attempted suicide, and questioned the circumstances of his discharge from hospital two days before the assault.
The victim’s lawyer, acting for Odette and the seven relatives who joined the case as civil parties, told the court the assault had stolen more than possessions and had left the victim with “the shame of having been sullied, trampling forever on the memory of her lifelong love.” Odette, attended in court by her three daughters and several grandchildren, told the presiding judge, “I’m 85 years old and it was excruciating.”
Nice-Matin reported how the victim believed the attack had “stained the memory of her husband,” who had died two months earlier.
The court convicted Cissé of rape and related offenses and imposed a 12-year prison sentence. The victim has asked judges to return a personal Claude François blanket that has been held under seal since the events.
