(Paris) After two days of detention, the renowned French cellist Jérôme Pernoo was presented to a magistrate on Friday and will soon be tried in Paris for sexual assault on a minor and sexual harassment, the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP.
“He will be tried for acts of sexual assault on a minor against a victim and sexual harassment against two victims” specified the prosecution, stressing that “pending this hearing, he was placed under judicial supervision.
Mr. Pernoo, 50, was detained on Wednesday to be questioned about facts concerning three complainants, who allegedly occurred outside the Paris Conservatoire. Asked by AFP, his lawyer did not respond.
A preliminary investigation into these accusations was opened in Paris on April 20, 2021.
Mr. Pernoo was dismissed without notice or compensation in May by the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris (CNSMDP), following an administrative investigation and disciplinary proceedings. The decision was confirmed in early November by the administrative court of Paris.
Mr. Pernoo intended to appeal, said his lawyer before this court, Mr.e Patrice Spinosi, according to whom the cellist “rejected the charges” against him.
Teacher at the CNSMDP since 2007, the cellist had initially been suspended as a precaution, after reports from two former students to the director of the establishment. He had obtained the lifting of this decision in court.
In its order at the beginning of November, the administrative court noted that “eleven testimonies show (that he) had inappropriate gestures towards two former students” in particular during a study trip to Russia, the “seriousness” of which led the management to seize the prosecutor.
The order also recalled that the professor, who had never been the subject of a report of this type before, had been accused of “inappropriate behavior” during his lessons.