PPDA: Publicly testifying, 7 accusers denounce the dismissal of their complaint – The HuffPost

Associated Press

PPDA – It is the first time, for some, that we see their face. In an article published by Release this Monday, November 8, eight women accuse the former star presenter of TF1, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, facts that may be, our colleagues note, legally qualified as “rape”, “sexual assault” or “harassment”.

Among these women, seven of them agreed to testify with their faces uncovered, their photo published in the newspaper. Several of them had already been expressed in The world in March 2021.

According to Libé, they speak up “because they were shocked by the classification without continuation of the preliminary investigation opened last February following the rape complaint filed by Florence Porcel ”. Also shocked by PPDA’s statements on the show Day-to-day on TMC, in which he notably evoked a “bygone era” where there could sometimes be “Little kisses on the neck”.

A case which could also see new twists and turns soon. Release ensures that Florence Porcel could file a new complaint for rape with constitution of civil party. She denounces a rape which allegedly occurred in 2009 and which the prosecution judged was “insufficiently characterized”.

Our colleagues explain that these women come from all social backgrounds and all over France and did not know each other. “They first spoke by phone and then exchanged by courier, before meeting, for a few, during a dinner in the spring”, adds Release.

A similar modus operandi

These women, including journalist Stéphanie Khayat, former reporter Cécile Thimoreau and company director Muriel Reus, denounce a “pattern of domination” mixing “abuse of power and a feeling of omnipotence”.

They tell, in their auditions or in their interviews to Release, a similar procedure of PPDA. The police officer in charge of the investigation himself notes it in his final report, according to the daily, which obtained the file.

“These testimonies describe Patrick Poivre d’Arvor as a sexual predator abusing his notoriety and using a similar modus operandi in approaching his victims and in the brutality of his acts, committed without the slightest attempt at seduction, nor least consideration towards women who dared to refuse his advances ”, he would have written.

Several of them also implicate the audiovisual group. “The management of TF1 knew what PPDA was doing to women”, assures Muriel Reus.

Solicited by Release, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor recalled that a court decision had been given and “was favorable” to him. Regarding the complaints, he considers that “a good number of them were not spontaneous since many elements tend to demonstrate the existence of a concertation”.

He adds, about the article of our colleagues this time, that it is “an attempt to circumvent the media of a judicial decision which (him) seems regrettable, worrying and dangerous”.

Investigation discontinued

After five months of investigation, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office decided in June to dismiss it. In total, eight women had filed complaints of “rape”, “sexual harassment” or “sexual assault” against PPDA, but investigations revealed that the facts were either time barred or insufficiently qualified to be prosecuted.

On February 20, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor had already denied any form of control or constraint vis-à-vis Florence Porcel who accuses him of rape, saying he is “rebellious” in a text published on his Facebook page. At the beginning of March on the plateau of Day-to-day, he had again denied these accusations altogether, indicating that he had lodged a defamation complaint against the author.

Claire Chazal, former partner of PPDA and mother of their son François, and Jean-Pierre Pernaut, a former presenter of the 13-Heures, had also defended it earlier, arguing in particular that his office was at the heart of the editorial staff and that reprehensible behavior had been seen or known.