Statements expected, after the indictment of the former swimming champion Yannick Agnel for “rape and sexual assault on a minor of 15 years”, Saturday December 11. The prosecutor of the Republic of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), Edwige Roux-Morizot, held a press conference on Monday, December 13, in order to clarify some of the elements of the investigation. Franceinfo looks back on what to remember from this speech.
Yannick Agnel placed under judicial supervision
The 29-year-old former swimmer, double Olympic champion at the London Olympics in 2012, was placed under judicial supervision in the line of his indictment. It is him “forbidden to leave the inner suburbs of Paris, to go to Mulhouse, he is obliged to hand over his passport “, Mulhouse prosecutor clarified on Monday during her press conference. The respondent also “the prohibition to come into contact with his agent”, Sophie Kamoun, as well as with “the victim“, who is one of the daughters of Yannick Agnel’s former coach in Mulhouse, Lionel Horter. The ex-swimmer cannot come into contact with any member of this family.
Edwige Roux-Morizot recalled that the prosecution had requested the provisional detention of the 2012 Olympic champion, in order to avoid any pressure on the victim. The judge of freedoms and detention did not follow these requisitions and placed the former champion under judicial control. “There was absolutely no pressure whatsoever to seek incarceration [du mis en cause] or not to ask for it “, the prosecutor continued.
He “recognizes” the facts, but believes that “there was no coercion”
“Yannick Agnel recognizes the materiality of the facts with which he is accused”, declared the prosecutor of the Republic of Mulhouse, adding however that the former champion “did not feel that there was coercion”.
“He did not necessarily immediately recognize the facts. The elements he had (…) led him to end up admitting the materiality of the facts.”
Edwige Roux-Morizot, prosecutor of the Republic of Mulhouseduring a press conference
“Regarding the rape facts, he [Yannick Agnel] has for some of them a memory problem “, said the prosecutor. Nevertheless, “the facts are recognized” and “I think he regrets not having, at the material time, sufficiently reflected on this age difference “, she declared.
The facts took place “over the whole of 2016”
The prosecutor did not wish to develop the details of the accusations of rape and sexual assault targeting Yannick Agnel, but she recalled that they took place in 2016. The swimmer was at the time 24 years old, the daughter of Lionel Horter was 13 years old. “When you have ten years of age difference, it is considered by law to be a real constraint”, recalled Edwige Roux-Morizot. The fact that the respondent is “a champion, with a strong personality” may have acted as additional pressure on the complainant.
The prosecutor, however, clarified that these facts occurred “over the whole of 2016”. “It happened in Mulhouse, Riedisheim, but also abroad, in Thailand, in Rio [Brésil], in Tenerife I believe “, she detailed.
“We are talking about several facts. All these facts took place during the year 2016.”
Edwige Roux-Morizot, prosecutor of Mulhouseduring a press conference
Asked about the subject, the magistrate also confirmed that some of these facts had occurred when the champion was staying with the Horter family, in Mulhouse, in the spring of 2016.
The items added to the file were “extremely important”
Two days after the indictment of Yannick Agnel, Edwige Roux-Morizot clarified that the elements constituting the file “were extremely important”, and “allowed him to be placed in police custody and then to have him indicted”. Audrey Jeandel, head of the Mulhouse judicial police also present at this press conference, spoke of “widely developed circumstances” facts, “which made it possible to obtain the confession of Yannick Agnel”.
Investigation “will obviously continue, so as to be able to shed light on everything”, said the prosecutor of Mulhouse. Other hearings have yet to take place as part of this judicial investigation.