- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
Ex-janitor accused of serial rapes goes on trial in France
A former janitor accused of dozens of rapes and sexual assaults in France and Belgium over several decades will go on trial in France on Friday, after admitting to a spate of assaults.
Dino Scala, known as the "Rapist of the Sambre" -- after the river near several towns along the France-Belgium border where he operated -- was arrested in 2018 in northern France.
He confessed to around 40 rapes and assaults he attributed to uncontrollable "compulsions".
The youngest victim was 13, the oldest 48, and most were attacked the same way -- surprised on deserted streets in the early hours of winter, strangled and dragged into nearby bushes or trees.
Scala, now 61, is a former janitor at an industrial site who was also head of a local football club, and was described as well-integrated and sociable by locals in his town of Pont-sur-Sambre after his arrest.
"He has confessed freely since the beginning" and wants "to explain himself and answer the questions," his lawyer Margaux Mathieu said.
He is charged with 17 accounts of rape, 12 attempted rapes and 27 sexual assaults or attempts -- for 56 victims in total, though investigators suspect there were other victims who did not come forward to police.
"They hope to finally put what happened to them behind them, have the beginning of an explanation, and be heard and understood," a lawyer for three of his accusers, Caty Richard, said.
Police sought the suspect in November 1996, when a 28-year-old woman said she was raped alongside a motorway near Maubeuge. Investigators found the attacker's DNA at the scene but found no matches in police databases.
Other similar attacks followed, with more than 15 alleged victims over two years.
Despite increased patrols, the assailant was never found and the case was closed in 2003.
But three years later a new series of assaults in Belgium relaunched the inquiry, and police began to suspect that other earlier cases in the area might be linked to the same man.
It was only in February 2018, when a teenager was assault in Erquelinnes, Belgium, that video surveillance cameras spotted a Peugeot car at the scene, and Scala was arrested a few weeks later.
A knife, gloves and cords that could serve as garrottes were found during searches, and DNA matches were made at several of the crime scenes.
After his arrest he told investigators how he carried out his attacks.
"I hung around... I watched where women would pass by," he said.
"I like to be secretive and hide... I have the nature of a hunter."
C.Amaral--PC