Frankreich: Frau folterte Online-Bekannten 18 Monate lang

A Frenchwoman who kept her boyfriend as a "domestic slave", forcing him to ingest sponges and window cleaner, was Thursday sentenced to three years in prison, half of which was suspended.

Zakia Medkour, 43, was also ordered to pay 200,000 euros ($217,000) in damages to her ex-boyfriend Maxime Gaget, 37, for crimes which the prosecution said went "beyond violence" with a "female torturer and a male victim".

The pair met in 2007 on the Internet and seven months later moved into a Parisian studio where Medkour lived with her two children.

The court heard how Medkour stole Gaget's identity papers and credit cards, forced him to sleep on the floor near the front door and prevented him from accessing the toilet.

For over a year he suffered beatings, insults, she burned him with cigarettes or a white-hot knife, threw salt into his eyes and blocked his contact with the outside world.

Medkour told him that if he rebelled, she would accuse him of paedophilia.

(...) Gaget in February published a book about his experiences called "My Girlfriend. My Torturer" which has helped lift the taboo about domestic abuse against men in France.

In the book, Gaget said he wanted to publicise the fact "that such atrocities exist, and are unfortunately not isolated issues."

An estimated 7,000 men file complaints about domestic abuse each year in France, according to the SOS Hommes Battus (Abused Men) association.

Many more are believed to be affected but too ashamed to come forward.

Die Yahoo-News berichten. Eine Sichtung deutscher Medien mittels der naheliegendsten Suchbegriffe via Google News ergab keine deutschen Artikel über diesen Vorfall und die dadurch angestoßene Debatte. In Großbritannien hingegen berichteten beispielsweise die BBC und die Daily Mail.

Bezeichnend ist darüber hinaus, dass "torturing" in der Überschrift von Yahoo-News trotz der Deutlichkeit der geschilderten Folterungen nur in Anführungszeichen erscheint. Sobald es um weibliche Täter geht, wird sonst gerne auch mal "rape" und "abuse" in Anführungszeichen gesetzt.