Gang rape in France: raped by several men, what do I do now?

You have survived a gang rape, or you are helping someone who has. What happened is not your fault, whatever you drank, wore or agreed to beforehand. This article first gives the steps that help right now, then your rights and the procedure in France, one step at a time. A lawyer can listen to you in confidence on Avocat20min.fr.

You do not have to decide anything within the hour, except your safety and your care. The rest can wait a few days.

Right now: your safety

If you are still in danger, or the attackers are near you, call 17 (police emergency) or 112. Cannot speak? Send a text to 114, free and open day and night.

After a gang rape, get to a safe place: a friend's home, an open shop, a hospital. Ask someone you trust to join you. You have the right to have someone with you at every stage.

Free helplines to talk to someone

Number	What it is for	When
17 or 112	Emergency, immediate danger	Day and night
114 (text)	Emergency for people who cannot speak or hear	Day and night
3919	Listening and guidance for women facing violence, anonymous	24/7
116 006	Victim support (France Victimes)	7 days a week
Police and gendarmerie chat	Report and get guidance from a trained officer	24/7 on service-public.gouv.fr

These lines know how to respond to a gang rape and where to send you. The 3919 line does not handle emergencies, but it listens, informs and guides. The online chat connects you with a police officer or gendarme trained in this kind of violence. A report is not a complaint, but the officer can help you file one.

Medical care and evidence in the first hours

Go to an emergency department as soon as you can, even without visible injuries: after a gang rape, care comes first. Staff can offer preventive HIV treatment and emergency contraception, which work better when started early. They can also test for sexually transmitted infections.

To preserve traces, if you can:

• Avoid washing or changing before the examination.
• Keep the clothes you wore, in a paper bag rather than a plastic one.
• Throw nothing away: sheets, condom, glass, tissues.
• Keep your phone as it is: messages, calls, photos, locations.
• Write down what you remember, even in fragments: places, first names, times, cars.

If you have already washed, the examination is still useful. Evidence also comes from witnesses, messages and CCTV footage.

After a complaint, the police send you to a forensic medical unit (unité médico-judiciaire, UMJ). A trained doctor records injuries, looks for DNA and any drugs, then gives you a certificate. In Paris, AP-HP hospitals collect evidence even without a complaint, and a forensic doctor can have the samples kept for three years while you think it over.

Do you think you were drugged? Tell the doctor straight away: some substances vanish within hours. Our guide to drug-facilitated assault lists the tests to ask for.

What French law says about gang rape

Article 222-23 of the Criminal Code defines rape as any act of sexual penetration, or any oral-genital or oral-anal act, imposed by violence, coercion, threat or surprise. Since the law of 6 November 2025, article 222-22 also defines consent: free and informed, specific, prior and revocable. It cannot be inferred from silence or a lack of reaction alone.

Freezing, not screaming, not fighting back: these common reactions do not amount to agreement. The law now says so in plain words.

Rape carries up to 15 years of imprisonment. Gang rape, which the law describes as rape "committed by several persons acting as perpetrator or accomplice" (article 222-24, 6°), carries up to 20 years. Other circumstances can apply too:

Circumstance	Article	Maximum sentence
Rape (basic offence)	222-23	15 years
Several perpetrators or accomplices	222-24, 6°	20 years
Substance given without the victim's knowledge	222-24, 15°	20 years
Use or threat of a weapon	222-24, 7°	20 years
Attacker obviously drunk or high	222-24, 12°	20 years
Rape causing death	222-25	30 years

Each participant answers for the acts. The person who holds the victim down, keeps watch or urges the others on can be prosecuted as an accomplice, facing the same sentence.

Filming the assault is also an act of complicity (article 222-33-3 of the Criminal Code). Sharing the video carries up to five years in prison and a €75,000 fine. If images circulate, keep a screenshot of the page with its address, without sharing them. Our guide to intimate images shared online explains how to get them removed.

Filing a complaint: where, when, how

You can file a complaint for gang rape at any police station or gendarmerie. Article 15-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires officers to take it, even if the events happened elsewhere. You leave with a receipt, and a copy of the statement if you ask for it.

You can also write to the public prosecutor (procureur de la République) at the court where the events took place, ideally by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

A few reassuring points:

• You can come with someone: an adult of your choice and a lawyer (article 10-2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure).
• You can ask for an interpreter if French is not your language.
• You can give a third party's address as your own, with their consent, so the attackers do not learn where you live.
• You do not need to know everything. Names, the exact order of events, the number of people: the investigation is there to establish them.

Not ready? You can wait. For rape of an adult, the time limit to report is 20 years from the events. Our article on the limitation period for rape explains these deadlines. Evidence, however, fades fast: an early medical examination keeps every option open.

After the complaint: investigation and trial

The prosecutor leads the investigation. Suspects may be held in police custody. In gang rape cases, an investigating judge is often appointed to run a judicial investigation.

Adult defendants are, as a rule, tried by the departmental criminal court (cour criminelle départementale), made up of five professional judges and competent for crimes punishable by 15 or 20 years (article 380-16 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). If a co-defendant does not meet those conditions, for example a minor, the case goes to another court, such as the assize court.

You can ask for the hearing to be held in private: for rape, it is granted as of right if the victim, as civil party, requests it (article 306 of the same code).

If the prosecutor drops the case, you can appeal to the principal public prosecutor. You can also lodge a complaint as a civil party with an investigating judge: for a crime, there is no waiting period (article 85).

The victim's lawyer

You can join the case as a civil party (partie civile) at any stage. A lawyer then represents you: they see the file, request investigative steps, prepare the hearings with you and assess your losses. They can speak for you when it is too hard.

On cost: a victim of a crime such as gang rape gets legal aid (aide juridictionnelle) without any means test, according to the official service-public page. You only need to apply.

For compensation, the victims' compensation board (CIVI) can cover your full loss, even if the attackers pay nothing or are never identified (article 706-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). You apply within three years of the events, or within a year of the final criminal decision.

A criminal lawyer tells you which route to take and when. They cannot promise a conviction, but they make sure you are heard at every stage.

If you are supporting a victim

Someone who has just survived a gang rape first needs to be believed. Listen without asking why: why she was there, why she did not run. Believe her, offer to go to the hospital with her, then let her decide about the complaint.

Other situations

Sexual violence takes many forms. Each guide starts from the question you are asking:

• Raped years ago: can I still report it?
• Drugged at a party without knowing: what now?
• My partner forces me: marital rape and the complaint
• My intimate photos are circulating: removal and complaint

The official procedure is set out on the service-public page on rape of an adult (in French).