Already the subject of an investigation for rape and sexual assault, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor faces new judicial instructions following the joint complaint filed by five women on June 19, 2024.
This is a new episode in the Patrick Poivre d’Arvor case. The former star presenter of the TF1 newscast is the subject of five new rape investigations following the filing of a simultaneous complaint by five women. This joint complaint was filed on June 19, 2024, according to information revealed by Libération, and resulted in the opening of five new rape investigations conducted by two investigating judges at the Nanterre judicial court. Among the plaintiffs are journalists Hélène Devynck and Stéphanie Khayat who had already filed a complaint against him in the past. Their lawyer, Corinne Hermann, intends to defend the argument of “seriality”, namely that if the last act attributed to PPDA is not prescribed, then the previous accusations can also be examined by the courts and possibly give rise to a trial.
Since February 18, 2021, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor has been the subject of accusations of sexual violence. The case began with Florence Porcel’s complaint, and has since been fueled by numerous testimonies (around thirty) and several complaints (around ten) for acts of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment. PPDA was indicted for “rape by a person abusing the authority conferred on him by his position” by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, in charge of the investigations, on December 18, 2023, but is not subject to any security measures. The 76-year-old man has always denied these accusations and even filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation, a complaint dismissed.
The accusations against Patrick Poivre d’Arvor were the subject of an initial investigation, which was closed without further action on June 25, 2021 due to the statute of limitations for most of the complaints or due to lack of evidence in the case of Florence Porcel. However, the latter joined the case as a civil party in November 2021, automatically reopening a new investigation against PPDA. This investigation was extended to three other facts reported by three different women during a preliminary investigation on February 28, 2024. These facts concern two rapes and a sexual assault that allegedly took place between 2007 and 2018 according to the prosecution.
The PPDA affair arose from accusations by science columnist Florence Porcel, relayed by The Parisian February 18, 2021. The writer, who was already at the origin of the so-called “Ligue du LOL” affair in 2019, then filed a complaint against the former presenter and accused PPDA of rape and sexual assault. The first facts date back to 2004. Florence Porcel indicates that after an 8 p.m. newscast where she was allegedly invited backstage, Patrick Poivre-d’Arvor allegedly led her into his office and kissed her by “putting his hand in her panties”. They then allegedly had sexual intercourse to which the writer, then aged 21, terrified, did not consent. In 2009, the complainant claims that the former journalist forced her to perform unprotected fellatio. According to her, this time she explicitly expressed her disagreement.
Patrick Poivre d’Arvor immediately denied these accusations. But Florence Porcel’s accusations would act as a trigger, with other women subsequently testifying and some filing complaints against the former star of the TF1 news. On June 25, 2021, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office closed an initial preliminary investigation without further action, due in particular to statute-barred offenses or lack of evidence (in the case of the Porcel affair). In November 2021, Florence Porcel filed a new complaint for rape, this time as a civil party. An investigation was opened. The Versailles court also requested, in June 2022, that the judges in charge of the case investigate Florence Porcel’s two accusations, including the statute-barred accusation of rape dating from 2004, which had not been studied when the complaint was first filed.
Following Florence Porcel’s statement against PPDA, several other women filed complaints for rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment. However, most of the facts are subject to the statute of limitations. In the immediate wake of the Porcel affair, at least 8 women filed complaints against PPDA. The majority of the accusations are also subject to the statute of limitations.
Some complaints, such as that of Florence Porcel, will also be rejected as “insufficiently characterized” or lacking evidence. But the accusations and procedures will multiply, so much so that since February 2021, at least 19 women have filed complaints against PPDA, including 9 for rape (according to The Parisian). Two women wrote to the public prosecutor of the Nanterre court to file a complaint for rape against Patrick Poivre d’Arvor on September 30, 2022.
The ongoing judicial investigation into the PPDA case concerns four accusations, those of Florence Porcel and those of the three women heard during the second preliminary investigation. Two allege rape and the third sexual assault. At the end of the same preliminary investigation, on February 28, 2024, 19 other accusations were dismissed because they were time-barred or could not justify criminal qualification.
In addition to Florence Porcel and the complainants, several women have testified against PPDA since February 2021 in several media outlets, including The worldMediapart, Libération, with several shocking headlines in november And December 2021 as well as in September 2022or Le Parisien, without necessarily filing a complaint. In total, around thirty women have accused Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of sexual violence. On September 20, 2022, Cécile Delarue, a journalist, told franceinfo that “90 women” testified to the collective of plaintiffs in the PPDA case.
Initially anonymous, several accusers ended up revealing their names and faces over the months. Some women are better known than others, such as Florence Porcel, journalist Hélène Devynck or writers Margot Cauquil-Gleizes and Bénédicte Martin. Other women, who accuse Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of sexual violence, wished to remain anonymous. One of them claims in particular to have been a minor at the time of the acts she denounces. On April 28, 2022, several women testified against PPDA with their faces uncovered in Further investigation. On May 10, 2022, 20 people said they were victims of the presenter in a program broadcast on Médiapart and to testify with an open face.
Since the first accusations appeared in the press in February 2021, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor has stuck to his guns: he completely denies each of the charges against him. He remains presumed innocent to this day. In the daily showin March 2021, PPDA assured that he would never have accepted a relationship that was not consented to by both parties. “If there was seduction or attempted seduction, it did not come from me.” Patrick Poivre d’Arvor also filed a complaint against Florence Porcel for slanderous denunciation, “as false as it was inspired by an inappropriate quest for notoriety”. This was dismissed in June 2021 by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, which cited a “lack of demonstration of an intention to harm”.
The former star of the TF1 news program also filed a complaint on April 26, 2022, a few days before a shocking report by Complément d’enquête on France 2, for slanderous denunciation against 16 other of his accusers. In his complaint, PPDA states that “the liberation of women’s speech unfortunately has its share of excesses and abuses.” He believes that these women whom he allegedly “dismissed or ignored” generated “bitterness that led them[sant] to commit, out of belated revenge, the offense of slanderous denunciation”. On May 12, 2022, PPDA was dismissed from the magazine “Une Maison, un artiste”, which he had been commentating on for 11 years on France Télévisions.