A YOUNG British tourist fought her way free of a Paris taxi driver she accuses of allegedly raping her repeatedly, it has emerged today.
Further details of the terrifying alleged attack on the holidaymaker – who cannot be named for legal reasons – came to light on Tuesday.
Allegedly, she scratched the neck of the unidentified driver and managed to flee after he assaulted her in the Bois de Boulogne, a 2000-acre forest located in the western suburbs of the city.
The woman, who resides near Edinburgh, was visiting the French capital over the weekend with four companions, and they were scheduled to head back home on Monday morning.
Following a night out at the Mermaids & Divers, a cocktail bar situated near Bastille square in the eastern part of the city on Saturday, she decided to make her way back to their Airbnb alone.
According to her testimony to detectives, she “partied and drunk alcohol until around 2am,” said an investigating source.
“Feeling unwell, she decided to return to the rental alone between 2am and 3am,” but could not remember any details of the taxi that she managed to hail.
She thinks her driver was “white skinned, in his forties, and with a stubbled chin,” said the source.
Rather than take her to her accommodation, they reportedly ended up on the Rue de la Muette, a road in the centre of the Bois de Boulogne, where sex workers congregate in cars and vans until the early hours.
There, the driver is said to have sexually assaulted her, and then “raped her repeatedly” inside the car, said the source.
She then “struggled and scratched her attacker on the neck”, before running for about 10 minutes to the Pavillon Royal, a restaurant in the wood.
While running, she fell and injured her knee, while also losing her mobile phone.
A local resident from Neuilly-sur-Seine then rescued her and called the police.
When cops arrived at the scene, they found the young woman scared and crying.
Her black tights were torn, and she was wearing a black coat, boots, and a plaid skirt.
She gave officers the numbers of her friends in France, her mother, and her boyfriend.
The victim was treated for injuries by Paris emergency workers, and then taken to the Raymond Poincaré University Hospital nearby for further tests, and for police interviews.
Paris prosecutors supported by detectives from the city’s 1st Judicial Police opened a rape investigation on Sunday.
On Tuesday, police patrols were still searching for the driver, while also checking CCTV and interviewing potential witnesses.
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