After prison, Christian Quesada comes out of silence

CHRISTIAN QUESADA. Christian Quesada was released from Perpignan prison after 22 days of incarceration. He speaks for the first time on the case that affects him in a documentary broadcast on C8 this Thursday.

[Mis à jour le 27 octobre 2022 à 20h45] After returning to prison in Perpignan at the end of September, Christian Quesada was released on October 19. The former champion of the 12 noon shots, convicted of corruption of minors and possession and dissemination of child pornography, comes out of silence and gives his version of the facts for the first time in a documentary broadcast on C8 this Thursday, October 27, 2022.

As a reminder, Christian Quesada was sentenced to three years in prison in 2020. To these sentences are added 5 years of socio-judicial follow-up and registration in the file of the perpetrators of sexual offenses. He was detained in Bourg-en-Bresse before being granted parole and released from prison in March 2021 after two years behind bars. Falling back into anonymity, Christian Quesada then settled in the Perpignan region where he was arrested at the end of September 2022 for non-compliance with his socio-judicial follow-up.

Christian Quesada was born in 1964 in the Hauts-de-Seine department. He was 22 years old when he participated in his first game show, in 1986: it was Numbers and letters on France 2, at the time Antenne 2. To date, Christian Quesada remains the only player to have won at both the Champions Cup, the Masters and the Clubs Cup. After these remarkable passages, he will participate over the years in other programs: the Grand Special Contest for TV game champions but also Le Plus grand Quiz de France.

It was in 2016 that Christian Quesada stood out to the general public: while he was unemployed, he became the champion of 12 Coups de midi on TF1. This single father of two children will participate in 193 shows and will accumulate 809,392 euros in winnings and gifts, a record for the program presented by Jean-Luc Reichmann, which has not yet been beaten. He will finally be eliminated in January 2017 and becomes one of the biggest game show winners in France.

In 2019, Christian Quesada was indicted and detained for corruption of minors and possession and dissemination of child pornography images. He was sentenced in April 2020 to three years in prison and five years of socio-judicial follow-up. The former fallen TV candidate is released on March 25, 2021. He would have changed his look and left his life department to fall back into anonymity.

Between 2001 and 2009, Christian Quesada will have to deal several times with justice: he is condemned on numerous occasions for corruption of minor, sexual exhibition and detention and diffusion of child pornography images. The game show champion was also sentenced in 2017 for “aggravated pimping attempt”.

However, it was in 2019 that the “Christian Quesada affair” broke out. Following a complaint from a minor, an investigation began at the end of 2017. On March 27, 2019, the ex-champion was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention. The police discovered thousands of child pornography images and videos on his computer. In May 2019, the 50-year-old admits, through the voice of his lawyer, to being attracted to teenage girls, but not to children. His lawyer will admit that the former Master of Midi “assumes what he has done” and tries to justify the possession of child pornography images, advancing “fantasies without any desire to take action”.

Christian Quesada was imprisoned from March 2019 to March 2021. On April 8, 2020, Christian Quesada was found guilty of “corruption of minors” and “possession and dissemination of child pornography”. He was sentenced by the correctional court of Bourg en Bresse to three years in prison and five years of socio-judicial follow-up. If he does not respect the socio-judicial follow-up, he will have to return to prison for three years. Christian Quesada was released in March 2021 after two years spent in the Bourg-en-Bresse detention center as part of a conditional release measure.

According to Midi Libre, Quesada had left Ain to settle in the Perpignan region. In September 2022, Christian Quesada was arrested following non-compliance with his obligation of socio-judicial follow-up to which he was nevertheless subject in the context of his parole. In fact, the former star of 12 noon shots on TF1 is again placed in detention in the Perpignan penitentiary center while his parole is canceled.

Christian Quesada participated for the first time in the 12 noon shots on July 4, 2016. To this day, he remains the greatest champion of the TF1 show: he remained Maître de midi until January 2017, and combines with him only 193 participations. No other Noon Master has done better than Christian Quesada at the time of writing. He was nicknamed “The Professor” by Jean-Luc Reichmann. Following the accusations against the ex-champion, the TF1 presenter said he felt “disgust” and “anger”, adding that Quesada was now deleted from the show’s archives.

How much did Christian Quesada earn? Christian Quesada is one of the great champions of the 12 noon shots. In total, he collected 809 euros in winnings and gifts. This sum is still a record for the TF1 broadcast today.

Christian Quesada was married to a woman, a certain Emilie, who preferred to remain anonymous. The couple had two children, before divorcing in May 2012, four years after they said yes.