The Patrick Poivre d’Arvor case continues. A new woman filed a complaint for “rape” against the former presenter of the 8 p.m. newspaper of TF1, Wednesday, April 27 in Paris, learned “Complement of investigation” from the complainant. Contacted by franceinfo and the team of the France 2 broadcast, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office specifies that the complaint is currently under study.
The complaint relates to facts dating from 1995, in the office of PPDA, according to the complainant, 24 years old at the time. “He pushed me with his hands on the carpet. My body was there, but I was no longer there. He took off my pants, he took off his pants, and he raped me”she says to “Complément d’Enquête”, which broadcasts a subject on the ex-presenter on Thursday evening.
According to a press release Wednesday from the #MeTooMédias association, founded by women accusing the journalist of sexual harassment or sexual violence, “to date, 26 women have contacted the authorities and 16 complaints have been filed against Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, including 7 for ‘rape'”. The former figure of the JT of TF1 strongly disputes these accusations. Franceinfo returns to the legal follow-up given to these complaints, and to the actions for “slanderous denunciation” initiated by the journalist and writer.
From February to June 2021: a first investigation targeting PPDA closed without further action
The Patrick Poivre d’Arvor case began in February 2021. The author Florence Porcel then accused him of two rapes: non-consensual sexual intercourse in 2004 and forced fellatio in 2009. She decided to file a complaint against the former presenter . A preliminary investigation for “rapes” is opened and entrusted to the brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP) of the Paris police headquarters. For four months, in addition to Florence Porcel, 22 women are heard by the BRDP. Eight of them testify in November in Release, accusing the journalist of sexual harassment, sexual assault or rape. They denounce a “dominance scheme” who “mixes abuse of power and feeling of omnipotence, crushing of the weakest and complicit silence”. Several women who have testified to the BRDP are complaining.
On June 25, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office announced in a press release that it had dismissed the investigation for “rapes” targeting PPDA, for reasons of “prescription” Where “insufficient evidence”. “The acts of rape denounced by Florence Porcel and five other women, since they are prior to March 1, 2007, are analyzed as being time-barred because committed for more than ten years on the date of the entry into force of the law extending the limitation period for this crime to twenty years, develops the floor. The same analysis is necessary regarding the acts of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault denounced by six other women, which were time-barred after three years until 2017 and six years since this law.
In parallel with the prescription, the prosecutor of Nanterre, Catherine Denis, declares that the accusation of rape in 2009 brought by Florence Porcel cannot “characterize the crime of rape insofar as there is no evidence to confirm the statements of one or the other concerning the existence of this scene (…). The other elements of the procedure also do not make it possible to establish, assuming that the contested sexual relationship took place, the intentional element characterized by the absence of the victim’s consent and its perception by the respondent.
Finally, for the accusations of sexual harassment “described by four women committed before 2012, these did not constitute a criminal offense before the law of August 6, 2012 which created this offence”, says the floor. “Other similar acts not prescribed were not sufficient to characterize the offense of sexual harassment or malicious telephone calls”continues the press release.
June 2021: a PPDA complaint for “slanderous denunciation” dismissed
After Florence Porcel’s first complaint against him, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor he also had filed a complaint against the author for “slanderous denunciation”. This complaint had been closed without follow-up, “failing to formally demonstrate the intention to harm implied by this offence”, said the prosecution in its press release on June 25.
December 2021: a new instruction on the accusations of Florence Porcel
In line with this decision, Florence Porcel announces her intention to file a complaint with a civil action, which opens the way to the opening of a judicial investigation, the investigation conducted by an investigating judge to determine the existence of an offence.
“Lhe many material elements transmitted to the public prosecutor’s office establish the existence of serious and concordant indications which fully justify the opening of a judicial investigation. In addition, certain essential investigative acts have not been carried out today”, denounce the lawyers of the writer.
An investigation is thus opened on December 15, in order to investigate again the accusations of rape in 2009 brought by Florence Porcel and classified, until now, for “insufficient evidence”. Contacted by franceinfo, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office confirms that the judicial investigation is still in progress.
December 2021: a second investigation opened against PPDA
Two new complaints, one for “rape”, the other for “sexual assault”, target PPDA in December 2021. A woman accuses the journalist of having raped her in a bedroom during the Cannes Film Festival in 1985. The he other complainant claims that the former presenter forcibly kissed her at Club Med in Valmorel (Savoie) in 2013. They were both 23 years old at the material time.
A week later, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the first complaint, for an accusation of rape in 1985, targeting Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. This is conducted by the magistrates of the public prosecutor’s office. “My client receives this opening of an investigation as an expression of consideration when the facts are prescribed, proof that her courage has not been in vain”reacts to AFP the plaintiff’s lawyer, Laure Heinich.
April 2022: towards an investigation for “slanderous denunciation” after a complaint by PPDA
PPDA then filed a complaint for “slanderous denunciation” against 16 women accusing it of sexual harassment or sexual violence. A complaint closed without action in February, according to information from “Complément d’Enquête”.
Two months later, PPDA decides to file a complaint with a civil action, this time, for “slanderous denunciation” against these 16 women, a procedure almost systematically involving referral to an investigating judge. The #MeTooMédias association denounces in a statement “gag procedures on the part of Patrick Poivre d’Arvor as well as intimidation attempts aimed at discouraging the victims, who have not yet come forward with the authorities, from undertaking this painful and difficult process”. “I’m waiting for the gag process to turn into a trial and we can all take the stand.” reacts on Twitter Hélène Devynck, vice-president of the association.
At the same time, the former TF1 presenter filed a complaint for “public defamation” against The Parisian, after the newspaper revealed Florence Porcel’s complaint against him.