During Friday’s hearing, cellist Jérôme Pernoo had to face four of his former students.
The prosecution requested, Friday, May 26, two years of imprisonment including one probationary sentence against the cellist Jérôme Pernoo, tried in correctional in Paris for sexual assault on a minor and sexual harassment, charges which he rejects as a whole. The public prosecutor also requested an obligation of care, compensation for civil parties and a ban on practicing for the former professor of the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris (CNSMDP), 51 years old. The Paris Criminal Court has reserved its decision on September 26.
Jérôme Pernoo is first suspected of sexual assault on a minor, in 2005 in London, on a pupil at the time aged 14, according to whom his teacher “caressed sex by surprise while asleep in bed“. The man, now 32, was his student, especially during internships, when he was between 10 and 17 years old. He considered him his “surrogate father“, having lost his very young.”This scene absolutely never existed“, affirmed Jérôme Pernoo, in front of a full courtroom, assuring not”Never” to have “woke up a student in his bed“. In front of him, the 30-year-old maintained his story at the helm, saying to himself “very angry“against his ex-teacher who the”pretends to be a crazy mythomaniac“.
Also suspected of sexual harassment of two young adults
Jérôme Pernoo is also suspected of sexual harassment of two young adults between 2011 and 2016, a man and a woman. The first was another pupil of the cellist, whom he considered a “spiritual father”, at the conservatory. The plaintiff reported “slap on the buttocks“, of “cat-bites” – a “game” consisting of surprisingly touching the genitals of the other while shouting the said formula -, and “stolen” kisses. What Jérôme Pernoo refuted, saying he had “Never“had such gestures on”no student“.
The young man also described an alcoholic evening during a trip to Belarus, during which the teacher invited him to “hhonoring a Russian tradition“Consisting of kissing each other on the mouth after drinking. The former student accepted for the first time, but claimed to have had to refuse the teacher’s requests several times thereafter.”This scene is completely constructed, invented“, repeated the defendant.
The young woman in green pants and a white top, she says, her voice trembling, that Jérôme Pernoo touched her breasts during this same trip, claiming a game called “Squeak squeak” (palpation). She pushes him away, but “the exceptional cello teacher“takes the situation as a joke.”I did not touch (his) breasts, that’s not my kind of humor at all. I don’t do ‘chat-bite’, ‘pouet-pouet’!“, retorts Jérôme Pernoo, also sweeping away the accusation of the young woman on the nickname he would have given her at the time: “my little pussy“.
“I almost fucked myself up because of him”
At the end of 2022, a renowned young musician who had so far intervened in support of his mentor also chose to speak out against the professor. Another investigation was then opened and Jérôme Pernoo was cited for sexual assault on a minor by a person in authority when the young man was between 15 and 17 years old, and for sexual harassment afterwards, against the man who had become an adult. in the meantime. The young cellist assures that the defendant had among other things “tried to kiss her“, he had “imposed various caresses“and sent”many love messages“.”I almost fucked myself up because of him (…) He does not know the difference between children, adolescents, adults“, he drops in tears at the bar, in a white shirt and black jeans.
A teacher at the CNSMDP since 2007, Jérôme Pernoo was suspended and then dismissed without notice or compensation in May 2022, following an administrative investigation and disciplinary proceedings. A decision confirmed in November by the administrative court: the teacher appealed. “I lost my job, I have no more money, no one invites me to a concert“, launched Jérôme Pernoo. The defense pleaded the release of all the proceedings.