The facts denounced by the complainant dated from the beginning of the 1980s. An investigation had been opened in 2020.
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The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP, Friday, January 28, the dismissal of the investigation for “rape” and “sexual assault” on a minor under the age of 15 which targeted Jean-Michel Baylet, former minister and president of the Radical Left Party, because of the statute of limitations.
Nathalie Collin, daughter of a former PRG senator, Yvon Collin, had accused Jean-Michel Baylet of rape and sexual assault when she was between 12 and 14 years old, in the early 1980s, which he disputes. After his report, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on June 9, 2020.
Jean-Michel Baylet was heard by the police in an open hearing in February 2021, then confronted for five hours with Nathalie Collin in October.
Now 75, the former minister is still mayor of Valence d’Agen (Tarn-et-Garonne), departmental councilor of Tarn-et-Garonne, and chairs the press group The Midi Dispatch.
“What is important is that the prosecution does not say that it has classified because the facts are insufficiently characterized”, reacted Zoé Royals, lawyer for Nathalie Collin, to AFP. Jean-Michel Baylet’s lawyer did not comment on the prosecutor’s announcement.