Journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin is the subject of a second complaint, filed Wednesday at the police station of the 16th arrondissement of Paris and which the investigation unit of Radio France was able to consult on Thursday February 17. This is a complaint for “sexual assault”, “harassment” and “exhibition”.
>> Jean-Jacques Bourdin case: new testimonies that challenge
The complainant is a 60-year-old woman who was a switchboard operator in the company Méditraining, in Neuilly-Plaisance, where Jean-Jacques Bourdin worked in addition to his post as a journalist at RTL.
In her complaint, she accuses him of having masturbated in front of her on the premises of Méditraining on several occasions, and of having called her to her post. “every day for two weeks”.
She explains that in the spring of 1988, when she was 26, Jean-Jacques Bourdin suggested that she visit the RTL studios, which she accepted. “During the trip, we talk about my work and my ambitionsshe explains in her complaint. I told her I wanted to be a publicist.”
Arriving at the radio, still in the car, the journalist took out his penis, took the young woman’s hand and placed it on her sex, assures the complainant. According to her, he then offered her 2,000 francs in exchange. She specifies that he has also “try to [l]kiss in a rather brutal way, [la] jamming against the inside of the door”.
The complainant denounces facts dating from the spring of 1988, 34 years later, and which are therefore prescribed, because she no longer supported the dichotomy between the public person and her attacker, explained her lawyer Eric Morain to the investigation cell of Radio France .
“We are talking about facts alleged 34 years agoreacts the lawyer of Jean-Jacques Bourdin, Christian Saint-Palais, at the microphone of franceinfo. Jean-Jacques Bourdin denies having ever assaulted a woman and having masturbated in front of a woman. This media binge and this soap opera are unbearable.”
“We smear the honor of a man 34 years after alleged facts. That the prosecution systematically opens investigations now for prescribed facts, I am opposed to that. We cannot defend ourselves!”
Me Christian Saint-Palais, lawyer for Jean-Jacques Bourdinat franceinfo
“Jean-Jacques Bourdin is innocenthammered his lawyer Me Christian Saint-Palais. He is a public figure: so what? He is a man who has a family life, who has an honor that cannot be trampled on shamelessly, in defiance of the law. […] We want women who were victims a long time ago and who did not dare to speak out to be able to speak out. It is a cause that I am also pursuing and that I also defend since I am a lawyer, I also defend plaintiffs. But it can’t be done in defiance of all the rules. I am outraged when I read this headline for alleged facts 34 years old. I think we have to treat information differently, with precautions and respecting principles.”
Jean-Jacques Bourdin, star journalist of RMC and BFMTV, is already targeted by an investigation for “sexual assault” after a complaint by journalist Fanny Agostini for “attempted sexual assault” in Calvi (Haute-Corse) in 2013. Since , the journalist was “temporarily” removed from the antenna of RMC and BFMTV. Him “dispute the facts” and “regrets the unilateral decision” of his employer.