a new rape complaint and damning testimonies

In this Supplement to the investigation that AFP was able to view, Mathilde (first name changed), at the origin of the new complaint against the former star presenter of TF1, denounces a rape in the premises of the chain in Boulogne- Billancourt in February 1995. At the time aged 24, a journalist who had just graduated, she declared that she had been invited to the office of PPDA where he allegedly ” kissed ” then ” tipped over on the carpet “. “ He took off my pants, he took off his pants and he raped me. I had no more reflexes “, she describes.

The one who is now in her fifties has filed a complaint for rape in Paris. A complaint however treated by the parquet floor of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) because of the place of the facts, indicated this one Wednesday to AFP, who requested it.

In the show, Mathilde continues: a few days after the first attack, he ” grabbed me by the hair and brought my face closer to her sex. There I struggled “. A complaint of attempted rape has also been filed, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Complaint for slanderous denunciation

Contacted by AFP, PPDA lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said she did not wish to react. On Tuesday, the former host had himself filed a complaint with civil action for slanderous denunciation against 16 women who had previously filed a complaint against him for sexual violence or sexual harassment.

► To read also: France: the former TV presenter, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor accused of rape

According to passages published by Franceinfo, he castigates the ” lot of excesses and excesses of the social movement #MeToo. He also describes ” a return of puritanism and censorship, cleverly adorned with the supposed protection of women “. In his eyes, the 16 accusers are women. dismissed or ignored “, feeding a” bitterness which leads them to commit, by belated revenge, the offense of slanderous denunciation “.

For Emmanuelle Dancourt, journalist at BFM TV, president of the #MeTooMédias association, who says she herself was a victim of the presenter, it is above all the notoriety of PPDA that protected her for so long. “ He was the locomotive of TF1. Ten million viewers, it’s enormous, we forgive a lot of things with figures like that and above all we don’t see, we don’t want to see, we are in denial. This is PDDA impunity “, she testifies at the microphone of RFI.

She also adds that if many victims did not speak earlier, it is also because they were in a hierarchical relationship with the star journalist of TF1. “ We thought we were at fault, that we had done something wrong, so I didn’t even think of filing a complaint “, she concludes.

” Gag procedure »

Hélène Devynck, one of the women targeted by the PPDA complaint, sees it as a ” gag procedure ” who ” makes the victims the culprits “, and is based on a ” domination by money “: ” we don’t necessarily have all the means to afford lawyers “, she told AFP on Wednesday.

The rape complaint of Ms. Devynck, journalist and screenwriter, had been dismissed in June 2021 for prescription. ” I’m waiting for this gag procedure (of slanderous denunciation) turns into a trial and we can all take the stand. “It will be difficult to make believe that 16 women are lying “, she says.

The case broke out in February 2021 when the writer and journalist Florence Porcel filed a complaint against Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, accusing him of having forced him to have sex in 2004 and fellatio in 2009. A preliminary investigation had been carried out for four months by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office and 23 women had testified. The majority of the facts denounced being prescribed, the investigation had been closed without further action in June.

(With AFP)