Victim speaks out after men caught filming women in Paris pool changing rooms

Journalist speaks out after men caught filming women in Paris pool changing roomsThe Independent/ Camille Chorley

Transcript

00:00A year and a half ago I was swimming in my public swimming pool in my district in Paris and

00:08while I was in the changing rooms I noticed that there was a smartphone on the floor

00:15coming from the cabin next to mine with the camera up. In France the changing rooms are often

00:22mixed so women and men are in the same spot changing in the same spot. When I realized I

00:29was being filmed I started shouting something like I'm being filmed I'm being filmed please help.

00:36So the woman in the cabin next to mine got out immediately and she came to help me. At that

00:44moment I was quite convinced that I needed to do something about what just happened and not just

00:50let go. Someone from the the staff of the swimming pool actually came after like five minutes and

00:56the guy was still in the changing room and he asked me oh that's weird what's happening do you

01:04want me to call the police and I said yes please and he was like are you sure you want me to call the

01:10police and I nodded and yes I'm pretty sure that we need to do something about that I'm sure that I was

01:18being filmed the police arrived quite quickly because the police station is next to the swimming pool

01:26actually they just took the guy in the corner of the entrance of the of the building and after five

01:32minutes they came to me and said he admitted everything he admitted that he had a quick look

01:37uh in my cabin I found the complaint he admitted everything and that's it and nothing happened

01:46nothing at all happened after that um the past few weeks um there's been a lot of testimonies on

01:55social medias it started with a french journalist uh called Lorraine Descartes uh she lived a situation more

02:05or less like mine in uh a public swimming pool in Paris and she decided to tell her story on her

02:11Instagram account and since her testimony there's been like hundreds of testimonies all across France

02:19I don't think like the solution for now that have been told by the Merit Paris are enough

02:24and I'm really scared that actually the matter is still going on right now as we talk uh and it's

02:31not only women it could be anyone it could be kids also that makes me really angry maybe if I had been

02:37aware that this was a thing that people were getting filmed without consent maybe um I would have

02:44feel less ashamed and today if I decided to talk to audience media people people around me it's because

02:55I want the shame to change side I don't want to feel ashamed because I was being filmed without my

03:01consent and I don't want it to happen to anyone else