(Nanterre) Closed at the end of June, the case of accusations of sexual assault against the former star journalist of French television Patrick Poivre d’Arvor knows a new legal stage: the writer Florence Porcel has filed a complaint with constitution as a civil party for rape in order to obtain a referral to an examining magistrate, thus paving the way for the opening of a new investigation.
Florence Porcel, 38, accuses the former star presenter of the TF1 channel’s television news of having forced her to have sex in 2004 and 2009.
His first complaint against “PPDA”, 74, who denied these accusations, was filed in February and then dismissed at the end of June by the prosecution of Nanterre, near Paris, for “insufficient evidence”.
After a classification without follow-up by magistrates of the public prosecutor’s office, a plaintiff can become a civil party in order to cause the referral to a judge to investigate again the alleged facts.
M’s new complaintme Porcel, recently filed in Nanterre according to information from radio France Info confirmed to AFP by the prosecution, thus allows the almost automatic appointment of an examining magistrate, subject to the payment of a deposit, a sum intended to cover the fine in the event of abusive denunciation.
Contacted, the lawyers of Mme Porcel have indicated that they do not wish to comment. PPDA lawyer Jacqueline Laffont, too.
#MeTooMedias
The PPDA case erupted in February, with the filing of Florence Porcel’s first complaint. A four-month preliminary investigation was then carried out by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office.
A total of twenty-three women had testified, nine of whom had chosen to file a complaint for rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment. Most of the charges were time-barred, which had resulted in the investigation being dismissed without further action.
The facts put forward by Mme Porcel, however, were not prescribed. They had been classified for “insufficient evidence”.
For his part, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor rejects all accusations. He had castigated a “search for notoriety” on the part of his accusers, bringing a complaint in particular for slanderous denunciation against Florence Porcel, who wrote a fictional book based on his version of the facts.
But his complaint for slanderous denunciation had also been dismissed by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, which had underlined “the absence of demonstration of an intention to harm” on the part of Mr.me Porcel.
Patrick Poivre d’Arvor had also castigated the anonymity of certain accusers and mentioned in a program broadcast in March “little kisses on the neck, sometimes little compliments or sometimes charm or seduction”.
But in November, eight women shared their side of the story in the daily Release, seven of them with their faces uncovered. They also launched a #MeTooMedias association to break the omerta in the French media.