With a certain restlessness in her voice, Margaux, a 35-year-old former centrist activist who filed a rape complaint against Damien Abad, agrees to testify for a reason: “What I hope is that the press release of this case will prevent other victims, allow other potential victims to speak, victims of Damien Abad as victims in general, other people .”
>> What we know about the rape charges against Damien Abad, the new Minister of Solidarity
The facts related by Margaux date back to 2011. She is 24 years old. She has known Damien Abad for two years. She was vice-president of the Young Democrats in Paris, Damien Abad, European deputy and president of the Young centrists-New Center. For two years, according to her account, Abad pursued her with his diligence until one evening in January 2011 in Paris where she claimed to have had a sexual relationship imprinted “disrespect, injunction and insistence”which she tries to stop with “innuendo”, avoidance. Then the young woman claims to have undergone an imposed anal penetration, despite a refusal pronounced in such a way “affirmed” and “Many times”.
Margaux recounts how she twice pushed open the doors of a police station in an attempt to speak: “I filed a complaint at the police station a year after the events, but I did not manage to sign and go through with it. [Cette première plainte a en effet été classée sans suite le 6 avril 2012 du fait de la carence de la plaignante, précise le parquet à franceinfo]. If I managed to do it six years later, it is because Damien Abad was omnipresent in the media and I could no longer bear to see him, to suffer from it and that he was not worried in any way. We are at this time in 2017. Damien Abad is the spokesperson for presidential candidate François Fillon. Interviewed by the police, the deputy contests these accusations. He repeats it today in a press release. According to him, the handicap that affects him, caused by a rare disease, arthrogryposis, makes rape impossible. “I have always been discreet about this handicap, about the constraints it imposes on me, about the way it limits my daily movements and gestures”he wrote.
“In my situation, the sexual act can only occur with the assistance and benevolence of my partner.”
“Without the consent and full participation of the other, nothing is possible”continues the new Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Disabled People.
The 2017 complaint will be closed without further action, the investigation having failed to gather sufficient evidence. But for Margaux, it was above all not sufficiently thorough. “There are shortcomings. Me, I have some of my relatives who have been auditioned. And he, no. I had a forensic examination and he who claims not to be able, because of his disability, to do what he did, didn’t have an exam.”
“It would have been quite simple, however, to be able to prove that he is capable by a doctor.”
At the time, Margaux did not file a civil action. But today, she wonders: “I didn’t have the impression that it could lead to anything. Afterwards, there was #metoo, an evolution of consciousnessshe explains. The opportunity presented itself to me just today. I haven’t decided”. A complaint with civil action would automatically restart the procedure.
The testimony of Margaux, who filed a complaint for rape against Damien Abad – collected by Valentine Letesse
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