A 38-year-old police officer was sentenced on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, to a one-year suspended prison sentence by the Paris Criminal Court for aggravated violence committed against two minors in 2019. The events were recounted by journalist Valentin Gendrot in his book "Flic", published in 2020 after several months of infiltration within a Parisian police station.
More than six years after the incident, a police officer has been convicted for violence against two underage brothers during an intervention in eastern Paris. The case dates back to April 2019, when a routine traffic stop escalated. According to evidence presented at the hearing, the officer allegedly slapped the younger of the two teenagers several times. His older brother, who tried to intervene, was then arrested. According to the prosecutor, the young man was punched several times inside the police vehicle, and then again upon arrival at the station. The presiding judge noted a significant bruise on his face. The officer, identified as Marc F., denied using excessive force, maintaining that his intervention was proportionate to the teenagers' behavior.
This case was brought to the public's attention by Valentin Gendrot, a journalist who infiltrated a police station in Paris's 19th arrondissement for six months by getting hired as a security assistant. In his book "Flic" (Cop), published by Goutte d'Or in September 2020, he described the daily lives of police officers, their working conditions, the lack of resources, and several incidents of violence. The journalist also reported racist and homophobic insults he heard during his immersion. The book sparked significant controversy and led to an investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN). Among the incidents denounced was the arrest of the two teenagers. Valentin Gendrot also claimed to have witnessed the drafting of a police report that made no mention of the violence, a document he considered to be false.
Six years after the events, a conviction that reignites the debate
During his trial, the police officer strongly contested the journalist's book's portrayal of events. Now assigned as a drone pilot to the Paris police headquarters , he denounced the account as fictionalized and unfairly negative in its portrayal of his colleagues. Before the judges, he defended the circumstances of his intervention, explaining that police officers sometimes have to use force to make an arrest. The court also examined other practices described in the book, notably the practice of driving an arrested person away from the place of arrest before releasing them. Several incidents reported by Valentin Gendrot, however, could not be substantiated by the investigation, primarily due to the inability to identify the individuals involved. The sentence handed down on Tuesday pertains to aggravated assault against the two minors.
Present in the courtroom, Valentin Gendrot expressed his regret at not having been heard during the legal proceedings. The journalist explained to AFP that he learned of the trial by chance and voiced his disappointment with the legal response to the case. The mother of the two victims, also present, reiterated her wish to see the children protected by law enforcement. Her sons had chosen not to attend the hearing, so as not to relive the events. This conviction comes amid ongoing debates about police violence, internal control mechanisms, and the difficulty of documenting certain behaviors within the security forces. The case also illustrates the role that journalistic investigations can play in uncovering facts that could lead to prosecution, several years after their publication.
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