FRENCH POLICE are investigating an alleged sexual assault on a 17-year-old Irish girl at a street party in the southern city of Montpellier. Three young men were arrested in connection with the incident on Friday night, but were later released.
The girl was part of a group of 15 students visiting Montpellier on a language exchange programme. She was at a large open-air party, organised through Facebook and attended by several thousand people, on Friday night when the alleged incident occurred.
She told police she lost her friends in the crowd at Place de l’Europe, a central public space, and was approached and blocked by two men while a third man assaulted her. This was at about 11.30pm on Friday. She managed to run away and alert police.
A spokeswoman for Montpellier police told The Irish Timesthe girl gave officers a full account of the alleged incident before returning home to Ireland in recent days.
“We had three people in custody and they were released,” the spokeswoman added. “Nobody has been arrested since then in relation to this case, but the investigation is continuing.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Embassy in Paris, is providing consular assistance to the girl and her family.
Weekend reports suggested the Montpellier event had passed off peacefully. However, the allegations of sexual assault have revived debate over unofficial open-air drinks parties, known as apéros géants, which are organised through Facebook and often attract thousands of young people.
Local authorities said more than 5,000 people took part in the Montpellier party, which had a heavy police presence and resulted in about a dozen people being treated for alcohol poisoning.
Violent incidents have generally been rare, but the apéro géant phenomenon generated controversy last summer after a 21-year-old man died in a fall from a railway bridge after an event attended by about 9,000 people in the western city of Nantes.
The then interior minister Brice Hortefeux convened a meeting of senior ministers and officials who opted against a blanket ban on all such parties.
