Paris police undergo mass DNA tests over Canadian tourist’s rape

More than 100 police officers and civilian staff are subjected on Thursday to a DNA test over the alleged rape of a tourist in April 2014.

Paris police headquarters, known as 36 quai des Orfèvres. Wikipedia

According to daily Le Parisien, police officers and civilian staff who were present at the police headquarters in Paris on the night of the rape are being tested over three days.

Two elite French police officers have already been charged with the crime but investigators are trying to find a match for a so far unidentified DNA sample taken from sperm found during the victim’s medical examination.

Although a police union has denounced the mass DNA test as excessive, judges in charge of the investigation want to ensure that the unidentified DNA doesn’t belong to a third police officer.

“We don’t want to be blamed of not acting correctly to identify those responsible for the rape”, reported a source close to the investigation.

According to the police, the unidentified DNA could belong to a man the victim had met earlier in the afternoon.

The Canadian tourist has told the police she had sex with a stranger in a garden a few hours before the alleged rape, reported RTL radio.

Last April 2014, the 34-year-old woman met police officers during a night of heavy drinking in an Irish pub nearby the police headquarters.

According to police, she agreed to follow them to their workplace but soon registered a criminal complaint after the alleged rape at the police headquarters.

The two police officers have admitted to having consensual sex with the victim, but have denied rape.