Former Tunisian tennis player “Selima Sfar” confirmed, in a long interview with “L’Equipe” newspaper, that she had been raped since she was twelve and a half years old by her French coach, “Regis du Camarat”, who was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison for rape.
The player explains the details of her rape:-
It started on the way back from Bordeaux airport after coming from Tunisia.
It was one o’clock in the morning when he stopped next to the road and started touching me.
I didn’t know what was happening; I didn’t understand anything at all.
She continued, saying, “I was paralyzed, and I could not move. I think it was a way to know whether I would react or not! I was in shock, as if you were hit by 220 volts and became paralyzed.
We continued on our path and arrived at his house late, his daughter was in the room, she slept on the sofa bed downstairs; after an hour or two, I woke up with him touching me, and then it went from touching to rape quickly.
The decision-making stage to speak publicly:-
“Sfar”, I didn’t tell anyone for years, so I went to England and finally decided not to have a coach.
You can’t imagine the hurt I felt every time I heard that and the shame I felt. It also indirectly confirmed to me how cowardly and weak I was, as I had dark thoughts.
At the time of “Du Camarat’s” trials, Safar confirmed that she “fell into a state of real depression”.