Sambre on France 2: Who is Dino Scala, the man who inspired the character of Enzo Salina?

France 2 broadcasts this Monday evening the last two episodes of Sambre, its event series that returns to the sad case of the Sambre bully. For almost 30 years, from 1988 to 2018, a man raped and sexually assaulted several dozen women in northern France without ever bothering the police.

It is this shocking story that Jean-Xavier de Lestrades, the director, and Alice Gérard and Marc Herpu, the screenwriters, wanted to tell in Sambre to highlight the dysfunction of justice, which is still well fought to overcome gender. based and sexual violence.

Who is Dino Scala?

For episode 6, Sambre chronicles the long hunt for Dino Scala, fictionally named Enzo Salina, the man who crawled through the cracks for far too long.

nicknamed “Sambri bully“, where is “morning bully“In Belgium, Dino Scala worked between 1988 and 2018 around his house, which is located near the Franco-Belgian border. Of Italian descent, this father of five was a worker for Jeumont Electric in the north.

Described at the trial as a helpful man, as a good father, even as “Daddy” by his wife, this coach and president of the Pont-sur-Sambri football club still kept his game under wraps.

A shadowy man believed to be one of the worst sex predators France has known attacked and sexually assaulted women on the banks of the Sambre in France and Belgium.

For 30 years, the investigation was stalled, with very few leads for the police to find the culprit. It must be said that Bruno Scala always did his best to avoid justice. For example, he started using condoms to cope with advances in DNA analysis.

Detention of the offender

One morning in February 2018, the police finally managed to catch him. That day, Dino Scala committed another attack on a minor near Erkelin station in Belgium. Running away, the assailant drives his car back to the station.

It was thanks to the institution’s video surveillance that the police managed to identify his car and part of the number plate. Thus, the cross-references made by the investigators make it possible to return to the dino scale.

The results of the DNA analysis are clear: the maintenance technician, the father of five children, is indeed the violent man who terrorized the region for almost 30 years. After his arrest, Dino Scala confessed to everything, assaults and even rape, which were not related “Sambri bully“. Originally accused of 19 assaults, he ended up confessing to about forty counts.

Court

Dino Scala was convicted in June 2022 of 17 counts of rape, 12 counts of attempted rape, and 27 counts of assault or attempted sexual assault, or 56 acts. Of those, 54 were convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison, the legal maximum.

During the three weeks of the trial, Dino Scala gave only snippets of explanation for his actions. Psychiatrists and psychologists saw in her attacks the rage of domination and the pleasure derived from terrorizing victims on the part of a man who felt that he was not recognized for his true worth in his marriage and professional life. For him, the victims had no face, they were only abstract shadows.

After the conviction, Dino Scala appealed. This hearing, scheduled for the spring of 2024, will not take place in the end, the sixty-year-old has changed his mind. “His psychiatric observation is very helpful” explained his lawyer Margo Mathieu. “Even if he contests some of the crimes for which he was convicted, he does not want to impose a second trial for the victims, the first trial being particularly trying.“.

Dino Scala has yet to serve justice after a judicial investigation into 14 other cases began in May last year. Old cases that were not preserved, even though they had his signature.

Frank Martins, the PJ inspector who inspired the character of Commander Etienne Winkler, played by Olivier Gourmet in the Sambri series, also warned during the trial that it was impossible to compile a complete list of Scala’s victims. So the story is not over yet…

Catch the last two episodes of Sambre this Monday 27 November from 21:10 on France 2. The series is now available in its entirety on the france.tv website.