PIERRE MENES. Pierre Ménès is once again in turmoil. The sports journalist was taken into custody this Thursday, December 9, 2021, following an investigation for “sexual assault” on facts that took place at the Parc des Princes in November …
[Mis à jour le 9 décembre 2021 à 13h53] He was excluded from Canal ++ for behavior deemed inappropriate a few months ago, before leaving the encrypted channel altogether. Pierre Ménès is now the target of an investigation for “sexual assault” after a hostess at the Parc des Princes reported “inappropriate gestures” that she allegedly suffered during a PSG match at the end of November. The Parisian, which reports the information, indicates that Pierre Ménès was also placed in police custody this Thursday, December 9, 2021. Police custody confirmed by AFP.
The alleged actions of Pierre Ménès vis-à-vis a hostess at the Parc des Princes had already been mentioned in several media and on social networks: the alleged facts would have occurred on November 20 during the PSG-Nantes match counting for the Ligue 1 championship. Pierre Ménès went to the stadium, as this professional football observer often does, as a spectator, spending part of the evening in the boxes.
The accusations of the hostess of the Parc des Princes during PSG-Nantes
It was there that he allegedly attacked the hostess of the Parc des Princes, in particular by touching her in the chest, according to the testimony of the accuser. The young woman would have subsequently been heard by the police, alerted by the messages posted on the incident. She would nevertheless have decided not to file a complaint, reports Le Parisien. But the Paris prosecutor’s office still opened a preliminary investigation into a “sexual assault”.
Pierre Ménès himself had chosen to initiate proceedings following the very first accusations, announcing to the Parisian at the end of November the filing of a complaint against X for slanderous denunciation. His lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh, had indicated to the newspaper that his client was accompanied to the Parc des Princes during the PSG-Nantes match and that three witnesses could attest that there had been “absolutely no problem” and that “the evening went very well “.
AFP reports this Thursday, December 9 that Pierre Ménès has indeed produced three certificates from people “unanimously confirming that[il] spent all of his time by their side as soon as he arrived for the cocktail in the box, during the match and the post-match cocktail. “” They confirm that absolutely nothing happened and that Mr. Ménès behaved flawlessly, “according to the agency, which was able to consult documents relating to the investigation. The journalist’s defense also underlines the absence of a complaint from his accuser.
At 58, Pierre Ménès has become one of the most renowned (and severe) observers of professional football over the past ten years, notably through Canal + ‘s Canal Football Club, where he has served as a columnist since 2009. But since the start of 2021, the journalist has been the subject of several accusations relating to inappropriate words or gestures towards women, so much so that he was, in two stages, removed from the channel: at the end of March , Canal + published a press release to indicate that Pierre Ménès would no longer be on the air “until further notice” and that this decision had been taken by “mutual agreement”; mid-July, the chronicler himself announced his final departure. On July 12, in Le Parisien already, Pierre Ménès had made a point of clarifying that this departure was “not a dismissal” and that he had himself “asked to leave”.
“I did not see myself coming back to the air with certain people who let go of me in a despicable way”, then explained Pierre Ménès who quoted “among others” Hervé Mathoux, the presenter of the Canal Football Club, in the columns of Star TV : “Him, he was there to show off when I was sick but when it was necessary to take out his c … there was no one left.” Nathalie Iannetta, former journalist of Canal + that Pierre Ménès whom he has worked with since spending at TF1 and now sports director of Radio France will also be singled out. “Nathalie Iannetta made her pamphlet in Le Monde. She clears me without actually doing it. I will never forget the phone call she gave me when I found myself in the heart of the reactor. She told me. : ‘quit, that’s the best thing you have to do’. It’s the thing that hurt me the most. “
A documentary by Marie Portolano at the origin of Pierre Ménès’ setbacks
It is the broadcast of a documentary signed by another journalist, Marie Portolano, which will have caused the setbacks of Pierre Ménès. Entitled “I am not a slut, I am a journalist” and broadcast on Canal + on March 21, it gave voice to sports journalists who claimed to be victims of denigration, sexual harassment or even sexual assault in a very masculine world. Pierre Ménès was among the personalities cited, even if Marie Portolano was not specifically targeting her former colleague of the encrypted channel, as she will explain in several media, including TV Mag, in mid-May.
The testimonies against Pierre Ménès were nevertheless precise in the documentary: the chronicler was notably accused of having lifted Marie Portolano’s skirt and of having “grabbed her buttocks”, before being slapped by the journalist. Invited to react to this extract from the documentary in TPMP on March 22, 2021, Pierre Ménès will indicate “not to remember” this moment and will ensure: “lift a skirt if it had to be done again, I would do it again”. Words that he will regret later in front of the same Cyril Hanouna. “I do not remember any more, the facts go back to August 28, 2016, it is about my last emission before I fell ill. I think that that evening I was not in my normal state”, Pierre Ménès will also indicate, who received a liver and kidney transplant in December 2016 to treat a critical case of non-alcoholic cirrhosis and type II diabetes following the so-called “soda” disease.
Another case of “moral harassment”
The revelations of the documentary by Marie Portolano will cause a stir at Canal + whose journalist and Pierre Ménès were employees at the time of the facts, but also in other editors, in full movement #MeToo. An internal investigation has been launched within the Canal + group, the results of which are not yet known. Pierre Ménès for his part claimed to have been summoned once, in 2018, for “reflections” and to have received a warning last year for an interview without authorization from the channel on YouTube.
The newspaper The world recalls that last December, Pierre Ménès was the subject of a judicial investigation opened in Nanterre for “moral harassment” after a complaint from his former assistant Emmanuel Trumer, who moreover detailed it on its website. The latter accused him of “homophobia” and “racism”. A previous complaint is also mentioned which was dismissed. The columnist for his part attacked his former collaborator for defamation.
Since his retirement from television, Pierre Ménès has announced the creation of a website, “Pierrot the football“, where he compiles his analyzes and conducts interviews with personalities from the world of football and beyond, such as Eric Zemmour recently (see here). The site was launched in association with Rewold Media (Closer, Grazia, Marie France, Science & Vie, Top santé, Télé Star but also Auto Moto, Auto Plus, Football365.fr) and presented by the magazine press group in a press release in September as a “digital media platform dedicated to the treatment of football news”.
“After having done it successfully for fifteen years in television, Pierre Ménès invests a new playing field with the” Pierrot Football Club ” […] On the program: interviews (prestigious guests, experts), reports, podcasts, analyzes, contributions from Internet users, talk shows… “, also wrote Reworld. Discussions between Pierre Ménès and Internet users were also promised” for an opinion media in direct contact with its audience. “” It is a pleasure to collaborate with the Reworld Media teams, together we are launching an ambitious, interactive and content-rich project. All without tongue in cheek and in that relaxed tone that is my signature. In a few days, football aficionados will be able to discover the PFC and get a taste for it! “, Enthusiastically Pierre Ménès.