What’s Current: Valerie Bacot goes on trial in France for killing her abuser

Valerie Bacot
  • A woman named Valerie Bacot is going on trial for killing her rapist, who began assaulting her when she was only 12 years old. Daniel Polette — her then stepfather — was jailed but later returned home and continued to abuse her. She says he forced her to marry him and fathered her four children. Bacot shot Polette dead, after years of continued abuse, during which she says Polette also had been prostituting her.
  • An upcoming European court judgement determining if France’s abolitionist model for prostitution is constitutional could reverse laws that protect vulnerable women.
  • The Jerusalem Post reports women activists are targets of Turkey’s “extremist” government through media campaigns that portray them as terrorists.
  • Research outlined by UCD’s Sexual Exploitation Research Program reveals that over 90 per cent of those involved in Ireland’s sex trade are migrant women, many of whom don’t speak English.
Meghan McCarty

Meghan McCarty is an undergraduate student and aspiring journalist living in the United States.