Two former leaders of the association Le Refuge, a foundation that helps and welcomes young LGBT + in pain, were indicted on January 21 for moral or sexual harassment, sexual assault or abuse of weakness. They are Nicolas Noguier, the founder, and Frédéric Gal, the former managing director. At least 18 complaints have been recorded. Since then, testimonies have been pouring in. franceinfo has collected that of three victims. Both defendants deny the facts.
“No one believed me or supported me”
At 17, Lilio Padovano was pushed out by his parents, who blamed him for his homosexuality. He contacted the Refuge in April 2019 and lived there for a year. Today, he is filing a complaint against Nicolas Noguier for sexual assault and abuse of weakness. “I stayed in his car alone with him for forty-five minutes during a trip from Montpellier to Nimes […]. When we got back on the freeway, he started putting his hand on my knee and stroking my thigh until he came up and touched my private parts.”
He claims to have been threatened by the founder of the association. “He said to me, ‘This is not your apartment. If I want to throw you out on the street, I can do it. These are horrible threats because, at this time, we have nothing. We just have the Refuge. It’s our family, our shelter, our food. We live from the Refuge so to hear those words from the president at the time, it was horrible.” He claims to have tried to alert: “I tried to talk about it but no one believed and supported me.”
“It became more and more intimate”
Benjamin Ledig was raped at the age of 16 and contacted the Refuge to benefit from psychological support. Nicolas Noguier then sent him messages. “At first it was rather benevolent. He was checking in on me and supporting me about what I had contacted them for. Then it became more and more intimate and more and more inappropriate”, he recalls. Until videoconferences, which make him very uncomfortable. “I had contacted them because I had been raped a few months before. I needed help and I was mentally destroyed, lost, vulnerable. In the end, I found myself in video with three 40-year-old people who asked the size of my cock and my desires.”
He was somewhat reassured by the release of speech that occurred. “I wasn’t the only one who felt uncomfortable. Maybe if I felt that way, it wasn’t because I was the problem or that I was making something up. but that it was really problematic.”
“I received death threats”
Yohann Allemand was housed at the Refuge fifteen years ago then became a volunteer, before resigning. In 2020, he created the Association for the Defense of Refuge Elders (Adar). “Since these indictments, we have received several testimonies, including one quite serious. We see that speech is freeing up a little more and that’s a good thing”, he welcomes. He says he was the victim of pressure for being the first to denounce these practices. “When you attack an entity like the Le Refuge foundation […], it is extremely difficult. I received death threats, calls and attacks on social media.”
We welcome the decisions taken against N. Noguier and F. Gal, former directors of @the shelter
The voice of the victims has FINALLY been heard
We are reassured for the young people followed by Family Big Heart, now safe from this predator @1ElisaMoreno pic.twitter.com/3hE70XPxga— @CollectiveanciensduRefuge (@CollectiveRefuge) January 21, 2022
He says he had to settle in the south of France for three months. “It was very complicated to manage. I had to stop working because it was no longer possible psychologically. It was also complicated to continue my work while taking care of the case. But I didn’t no regrets. When I see the result today, I tell myself that I did well not to give up.”