Paris - France's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that women cannot commit the crime of rape because they cannot sexually penetrate men. "The material element of the crime of rape is only realised if the perpetrator commits the act of sexual penetration on the person of the victim," it said in its judgment.
The court, known as the Cour de Cassation, overturned a lower court ruling that Ms Catherine Maillard could be tried for rape on charges of forcing her underage stepson to have sex with her repeatedly between 1986 and 1992.
In December 1997 the court ruled that forcing someone to perform oral sex was legally equivalent to rape.