French journalist and writer Patrick Poivre d’Arvor targeted by a new legal action. A woman has filed a complaint for “rape” against the former presenter from the 8 p.m. newspaper of TF1, Wednesday, April 27 at the police station in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, learned “Complement of the investigation” from the complainant. This evokes four hours of testimony and claims to have been “very well received”. Contacted by franceinfo and the teams of “Complément d’Enquête”, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office confirms the filing of this complaint and specifies that it is currently under study.
The complaint relates to facts which allegedly took place in 1995 in the office of Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, according to the complainant. The France 2 magazine “Complément d’Enquête”, which broadcasts an investigation on the former presenter on Thursday evening, collected the testimony of this woman, renamed “Mathilde”. This graduate of a school of journalism, aged 24 at the time of the alleged facts, was then working in the editorial staff of TF1. In the journalist’s office, “he asks me if I have a boyfriend, a lover. I felt cold, I replied ‘no’. He gets up, he walks around his huge desk, he comes and sits down next to me, he puts his hands on my shoulders and he kisses me.” described the complainant to “Complément d’Enquête”.
“He pushed me with his hands on the carpet. My body was there but I was no longer there. He took off my pants, he took off his pants, and he raped me.”
“Mathilda”to “Further investigation”
“I looked at the ceiling. It lasted two minutes, no more than two minutes. He got dressed, I got dressed. He said to me ‘good evening, see you tomorrow’, continues the plaintiff, very marked. I find it appalling.”
In this interview, “Mathilde” also accuses Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of attempted rape. One evening, after the television news, in the newsroom, “It is came close to me, against me, he unbuttoned his pants, he grabbed me by the hair, he brought my face close to his penis, she assures. I struggled like crazy. It was so violent. He got dressed, he left, without a word.”
Contacted by franceinfo, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor’s lawyer, Philippe Naepels, claims not to have yet been aware of this complaint. “If this complaint exists, it will be the subject of a judicial inquiry and Mr. Poivre d’Arvor will answer all the questions that may be asked of him, as he has always done”, he explains.
The #MeTooMédias association, founded by women accusing Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of harassment and sexual violence, reported in a press release on Wednesday that“to date, 26 women have contacted the authorities and 16 complaints have been filed against Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, including seven for ‘rape'”. The respondent decided to file a complaint with a civil action for “slanderous denunciation” against 16 women accusing him of sexual harassment or sexual violence, learned “Complement of investigation” from the lawyer of the journalist and the public prosecutor’s office of Nanterre. He had filed a first complaint against these women, dismissed in February.