It is in an impeccable suit and tie that Jacky Fortepaule advances to the bar. At 76, the former president of the Football Center League (from July 2017 to October 2018), is appearing this Thursday, March 3 before the Orleans Criminal Court for “moral and sexual harassment”. 1 year suspended prison sentence was requested against him, the judgment will be rendered on April 5.
It’s actually the penal component of this case revealed by France Bleu Orléans, which had forced Jacky Fortepaule to resign from his duties, and for which the Conseil de Prud’hommes d’Orléans has already ruled twice, in May 2019 then in November 2019, condemning the League to pay compensation to 6 employees who had filed a complaint.
A wounded man, but who denies the facts
Since then, time has flown, and Jacky Fortshoulder presents himself as a man suffering from health problems and above all deeply hurt. “I’ve been thinking about it every day, every night for 4 years. I no longer have a social life, my 17-year-old granddaughter hasn’t spoken to me since she discovered the articles on the Internet. I had 54 years of voluntary work in football, it’s terrible that it ends like this.“
But basically, the former banking executive, who spent his entire career at Crédit Lyonnais, did not change his position: he denies most of the charges against him and regrets that, in this procedure, 35 League employees were not heard. “JI don’t feel like I did anything wrong“, he repeats at the bar.
Long list of inappropriate comments and behavior
Then the presiding judge enumerates comments of a sexist or sexual naturethat Jacky Fortepaule used to hold, according to the concordant testimony of the victims – 4 women and 2 men then aged 24 to 58 who held (or still hold) very diverse positions (marketing, communication, management, etc. ): “On Valentine’s Day, put on your transparent underwear instead“, “Strengthen your thighs, your boyfriend will be happy“, “I’m saving your legs for cleaning”, “Too bad the buttocks were abolished, you would have had red buttocks“, the list is long – it even includes erotic emails showing images of women posing topless, with the comment “There are none like that in the League.”
Added to this is the moral harassment aspect, with orders and counter-orders, humiliating remarks : “Stop eating cake for your saddlebags“, “The fat kid, if he’s not happy, he gets out“, “You’re a shitty secretary, besides, it stinks in this office“, “You’re just a bunch of incompetents”. The victims say that they then came to work “the lump in the stomach“: “I don’t wish anyone to go through what we went through professionally“, summarizes one of them.
The Football Center League absent from the trial
As many words as Jacky Fortepaul contests, recognizing, at most, a few saucy bragues, because he is “of the old generation“, and sometimes admitting anger: “I like a job well done and when it’s not, I can scream, it’s true.” “Cornhe adds, I considered everyone as team members to whom you could tell everything, like you do in a football match. For the rest, the insults, the ideas behind the head of a sexual nature, this is not part of the Strongshoulder panoply.”
The Football Center League, she, was conspicuous by his absence during this trial. Convicted by the Conseil de Prud’hommes, she had nevertheless announced her intention to file a civil action for the criminal trial. She obviously gave up. Perhaps because she did not react, despite internal alerts, before the matter broke publicly, “and while everyone knew“, claim the plaintiffs.
1 year suspended sentence required
“I was hoping that during this hearing we would have an ounce of questioning, it is not so“, sorry Me Sandra Foxthe lawyer for two of the victims. Being an old soccer player, as he says, does not give you all the rights.“The civil parties requested 8,000 to 10,000 euros for each of the victims for non-pecuniary damage.
For prosecutor Céline Visiedo, “this is not just a management problem but such rude and shocking behavior, with very serious consequences for the employees who have been devastated by this ordeal“. She therefore requested a suspended sentence of 1 year in prison and a fine of 1,500 euros. Me Ladislas Wedrychowski, the lawyer of Jacky Fortepaule, denounces on the contrary “a fragile file“, “a botched investigation, with a lot of copy-pasting in the testimonies and unproven accusations, all of which should lead to an acquittalThe court will deliver its judgment on April 5.