A photographer went on trial in France on March 18, accused of raping women he lured on dating apps with a promise of taking their picture. Salim Berrada, nicknamed the “Tinder rapist” after the popular dating app, invited women he found online in 2015 and 2016 to modelling photo shoots and assaulted them during the encounters, according to the prosecution. He told investigators his 17 accusers may have had regrets after the encounters and agreed to jointly file complaints against him.
One of their lawyers said of her client that “she doesn’t have the psychological strength to come here”. Investigators said they had identified an “industrial-type” pattern in the online strategy employed by Berrada, who they said used his reputation as a photographer to attract the women. The spreadsheets included lists of key phrases he used to attract, compliment and proposition the women he mass-targeted online, telling them they were “unique” or his “muse”. When they arrived for their modelling session, he offered them a drink, prosecutors said. Once they accepted, the women said they felt the onset of an abnormal and rapid inebriation and sudden weakness, which investigators said pointed to the drinks being laced with chemical drugs. The women then described a sudden change in Berrada’s attitude, and said he forced himself on them despite their objections