An investigation has been opened by the head of sexual assault, after the complaint against Jean-Jacques Bourdin, journalist at BFMTV and RMC, received by the Paris prosecutor’s office on January 14, franceinfo learned Tuesday January 18 from the Paris prosecutor’s office. According to a source close to the investigation, two other women plan to testify against Jean-Jacques Bourdin.
>> Complaint against Jean-Jacques Bourdin: launch of an internal investigation at BFMTV and RMC
The investigation is entrusted to the police station of the 16th arrondissement. A former BFMTV journalist has filed a complaint against Jean-Jacques Bourdin and denounces facts dating back to October 2013. She is then on a business trip to Calvi, in Haute-Corse, where she represents BFMTV for the Open de Pétanques. In her complaint, she says that one morning, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., she goes to bathe in the swimming pool of her hotel and is joined by Jean-Jacques Bourdin who swims at her height, grabs her by the neck while she is n has more feet and tries several times to kiss her. Each time, the young woman turns her head while struggling, and manages to get out of her embrace and get out of the pool.
She claims that the star presenter then told her: “I always get what I want”. “I lived this last sentence as if he was warning me that sooner or later he would have what he wanted” and “as a threat from someone who had a hierarchical ascendancy over me”, she explains in her complaint.
The following months, she says she received many emails and text messages from Jean-Jacques Bourdin asking her for sexual favors. She attached one of these emails to her complaint which contains the sentence: “You tempt me every morning, I like your look.” The journalist explains to the investigators that she did not file a complaint at the time for fear of losing her job – she left BFM TV in 2017 – and because the release of speech and the Nicolas Hulot affair enabled her to find the “courage” speak of it.
Valérie Pécresse will deliver “an introductory remark” in front of Jean-Jacques Bourdin, this Tuesday evening, at the start of the BFMTV program “France in the eyes”, learned franceinfo from the entourage of the LR presidential candidate and the management of BFMTV. This “introductory remarks” is linked to the opening by the Paris prosecutor’s office of an investigation into the charge of sexual assault, after the complaint against the star presenter of the channel.
Valérie Pécresse conditioned her participation in this program on this “introductory remark” in front of the journalist, her entourage told franceinfo, confirming information from the newspaper Le Figaro. This request was accepted, says the same source, indicating if this had not been the case, “she would not have participated in the show”, broadcast live. The management of BFMTV, on the contrary, assured franceinfo that this “introductory remark” was his initiative.