The police custody of French youtubeur Norman Thavaud for rape and corruption of a minor was lifted Tuesday evening “for further investigation”, without prosecution at this stage, the Paris prosecutor’s office told Agence France-Presse.
The host of the “Norman makes videos” channel, which has 12 million subscribers, was taken into police custody on Monday as part of a preliminary investigation entrusted to the minors protection brigade, opened in January 2022 .
Six young women have filed a complaint against the youtubeur, according to the public prosecutor.
Several sources had told Agence France-Presse since Monday that Norman Thavaud’s police custody would not necessarily lead to prosecution, as the case stands.
According to the French daily Releasefive of the complainants accuse Norman Thavaud of rape and two were minors at the time.
In 2020, a Quebec fan, Maggie D., publicly accused Norman Thavaud of having manipulated her to obtain sexual photos and videos, when she was, according to her, 16 years old at that time. She said she had filed a complaint in Canada.
As part of a Quebec-French investigation published by the Urbania media in April 2021, other women had made similar accusations against the youtuber, for facts which allegedly occurred when some were still minors.
Questioned by Agence France-Presse, Maggie D. confirmed that she was in France to be confronted with Norman Thavaud on Tuesday before the investigators, as indicated Release.
Norman, the third French YouTuber in number of subscribers, has been a veteran since his debut in 2011 on the platform. His videos, according to an official tally, have been viewed more than 2.7 billion times.
Standard-bearer for a new generation of comedians born on social networks, this trained editor made a name for himself in the early 2010s with sequences inspired by his daily life (To have a cat , Toilet) or video games (Luigi clash Mario).
Passionate about stand-up, he took to the stage for two solo shows between 2015 and 2020, in addition to a few film appearances (My king) and on television (Ten percent).
In 2018, the number one French YouTuber, Squeezie (17.6 million subscribers), denounced on Twitter “YouTubers (including those who shout from the rooftops that they are feminists) who take advantage of the psychological vulnerability of young subscribers to obtain sex”.
His tweet had been widely redistributed as part of the #balancetonyoutubeur movement. Some testimonies had targeted Norman. Squeezie later assured that it was “not at all” aimed at Norman.
On Monday, the Webedia group (AlloCiné, PurePeople, etc.) announced that it was suspending its collaboration with the 35-year-old icon, who seduced an entire generation by parodying daily life from his roommate in Montreuil, in the Paris suburbs.