the investigation into rape and corruption of minors targeting the YouTuber dismissed

The preliminary investigation into rape and corruption of minors targeting YouTuber Normand Thavaud was dismissed, announces the Paris prosecutor’s office to franceinfo, Wednesday October 11, confirming information from Parisian. The investigation, opened in January 2022 and entrusted to the minor protection brigade of the Paris judicial police, concerned seven complainants.

The qualifications of rape or sexual assault were not retained “since the exchanges prior to the meetings were systematically sentimental and most often sexualized and unambiguous, it thus appears that the consents were not deceived, and that the pressure of not being able to see the accused or his insistence cannot be sufficient to characterize the constraint”, writes the prosecution. The latter therefore took the decision to classify the procedure, “on the grounds that the offenses were insufficiently characterized”.

The name of the comedian and actor of 35 years old had been cited on social networks in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Norman Thavaud was placed in police custody in December 2022, as part of a preliminary investigation opened eleven months earlier, in January.