Accused of corruption of minors and rape and placed in police custody since December 5, 2022, Norman Thavaud did not speak on the case. He had also remained silent in 2020 after the public testimony of one of the accusers.
After rumors in 2018 in full wave #BalanceTonYoutubeur, a damning testimony made public in 2021 and a police custody on Monday, December 5, 2022, Norman Thavaud has several times been involved in a case with somewhat vague contours on which an investigation for corruption of minors and rape was opened. In four years, the videographer has never spoken on this subject, not even to deny the accusations of Maggie Desmarais, a former Quebec fan who authored the first complaint filed against the French youtuber. The opportunities have not yet failed for the one who regularly stages himself on the Internet in sketches published on his YouTube channel.
Norman Thavaud could not however ignore the public nature of the affair after the testimony of Maggie Desmarais broadcast by the Canadian media Urbania in April 2021 and the opening of legal proceedings by the Paris prosecutor’s office in January 2022. The 35-year-old man and father of a family has not made any more statements since his placement in police custody, nor have his entourage questioned by theAFP. A reaction from the defendant or his lawyer is expected at the end of police custody, but the latter having been extended, no communication should take place before Wednesday morning.
Silence as a line of defense?
In the Norman Thavaud case, five plaintiffs filed a complaint during the year 2021 after Maggie Desmarais, the only accuser to have testified publicly, paved the way in 2020. But the legal proceedings did not begin until 2022 and the videographer’s silence in previous years may have been a defensive strategy to highlight his innocence by not responding to the charges, or simply to avoid escalating and publicizing the case by reserving his speech for justice. The only downside to this hypothesis, the youtuber has not provided more explanations since the start of the legal proceedings. It remains to be seen whether Norman Thavaud will remain silent during the 48 hours of police custody and during the confrontation with the Quebec accuser, Maggie Desmarais, normally scheduled for Tuesday, December 6.