Will the National Bar Council take up the case? This Monday, a supervisor of the prison of Health, in Paris, surprised a lawyer and her client in the middle of sexual intercourse in a visiting room, reports The Parisian. While on duty, the officer was puzzled by the movement of shadows behind the glass door of a visiting room. In order to ensure the safety of the lawyer and his client, he opened the door and found the scene of a sexual relationship between the two protagonists.
If the relationship was well agreed between the two adults, it still poses two problems. Sexual relations are indeed authorized for prisoners, but only in the family living units, not in the visiting rooms. Because the detainees are not searched at the end of their interview with their counsel, only a pat-down is carried out. In the case of too strong a proximity between the prisoner and the visitor, there could be introduction of a telephone, a weapon or drug.
Possible penalties
Next, the excessively intimate relationship between a detainee and his lawyer poses an ethical problem for the latter and could undermine the dignity of the profession. This, even if both parties are concubines as seems to be the case.
Both the detainee and the lawyer risk sanctions. The detainee, a businessman, could be sentenced to a few days in the disciplinary block according to a prison source quoted by The Parisian. The lawyer, she could see herself applying a sanction by her order which can range from reprimand to radiation.
