Oumar Ndiaye, 21 years old, was sentenced on March 12, 2026, by the Manche Assize Court to 30 years of criminal imprisonment for the rape with torture or barbaric act on Mégane in Cherbourg in August 2023. The victim, seriously injured, had come close to death after the assault. The trial was held in camera in Coutances over two days.
On August 4, 2023, around 8 a.m., Mégane, a 29-year-old woman living alone in a center-ville building in Cherbourg, was assaulted in her home. Woken by knocks at the door, she opened thinking it was a lost neighbor. Oumar Ndiaye, whom she had vaguely seen but did not know, rushed at her, struck her in the face and body, then raped her multiple times, using among other things a 75-centimeter broom handle. Before fleeing, he gave her a false identity and threatened: “If you talk, I’ll kill you.” Ndiaye had already knocked on her door without reason four months earlier.
Despite her severe injuries, Mégane, an employee caring for disabled people, messaged a colleague to report her absence from work, then called the firefighters. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed perforations of the colon, small intestine, peritoneum, and diaphragm, a pneumothorax, rib fractures, and a high risk of septic shock. Operated on for six hours, she was placed in an artificial coma for about a month. The medical staff, shocked, were moved to tears.
Ndiaye, then 18 years old, was arrested a week later at his mother’s home in Cherbourg thanks to a fingerprint on a victim’s door and the geolocation of his phone, placing him near a nearby nightclub after a night out. In custody, he expressed neither empathy nor remorse, described as a “psychopath’s behavior” by a source close to the case.
Judicial background: convicted five times by juvenile justice for thefts and violence, with a TikTok video suggesting violence against an ex-girlfriend. Proceedings for rape of a minor in 2019 (dismissed without follow-up) and sexual assault on his 12-year-old sister in 2022 (investigation ongoing). Never imprisoned before, he lived with his mother, unemployed, and was known locally for disruptive behavior.
Mégane, discharged from the hospital, now lives with her mother, has undergone several operations, takes antidepressants, and receives psychological follow-up. She suffers from nightmares, memory disorders, and avoids going out alone, refusing to return to Cherbourg. Her mother, Sandrine, stated in April 2024: “By committing this act, he deprived her of everything. She loved sports, she can no longer do it. She loved her job, she can no longer go there. [...] We see her suffer every day.” An online fundraiser received support from 4500 donors. The father, Ludovic, regretted the lack of support from authorities and feminists, and was not allowed to attend the trial at his daughter’s request.
