The case of Rudolf C.

A German man who served seven years in a French prison for raping his daughter on Monday failed in his attempt to have the verdict overturned.

The defense team claimed that Rudolf C. had been a victim of a "monstrous miscarriage of justice."

The case of Rudolf C. began in the summer of 1996, when he, his wife, their disabled 11-year-old son and their 8-year-old daughter were on a camping trip near the fishing port of Sete in the south of France.

A woman at the campsite contacted the police and told them Rudolf C. was sexually abusing his daughter. She was the only witness at a trial at which even the public prosecutor requested additional information because the case for the prosecution seemed so insubstantial.

During the proceedings, Rudolf C., although deaf, was cross-examined without the use of his hearing aid. He was accused of rape despite a medical examination showing his daughter, Sabrina, was still a virgin and bore no signs of abuse. As for the young girl, she said her father had not harmed her in any way. This evidence, though, did not convince the judge who found Rudolf C. guilty.

He was not allowed to appeal and served seven years of a twelve-year prison sentence before returning to Germany. His wife, Elke, was convicted of being an accomplice in his alleged crime and served 15 months of a two-year sentence. The children were sent to a French foster family, where they lived for more than a year.

'The accusations were false'

In 2007, his daughter, who was now no longer a minor, repeated what she had always said – that her father was innocent.

"They asked me what had happened. I told them there'd never been anything, ever," Sabrina C. told France's biggest radio station, RTL. "I want the judiciary to admit they made a mistake, because the accusations were false."

But the court in Montpellier has refused to do that. The judge in the case said that no new evidence has come to light which would justify reversing the ruling reached in 1997.

Marie-Christine Blindauer and her husband Ralph have been defending the C. family in court, and she said they will continue to try and clear Rudolf C.'s name.

"This family has been broken, completely crushed," said Blindauer. "We have decided to keep fighting because we can't allow things to remain how they are, with this judgment still standing. It's a catastrophe."

The C. family is also determined to keep fighting. In France, their lawyers will try, once again, to persuade the court to revise its judgment. They also plan to plead their case at the European Court of Human Rights.

Author: John Laurenson (svs)
Editor: Rob Turner