“Stolen Service” on TF1 tells the story of Isabelle Demongeot’s fight to convict her rapist – The HuffPost

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TELEVISION – “It’s a recognition that I have never had for 42 years”. The story of Isabelle Demongeot is told this Monday, November 22 in a TV movie on TF1 at 9:05 p.m., with Julie de Bona in the lead role. Yet fifteen years ago, when the former champion of tennis revealed to have been rape victim as well as about twenty women, many of them did not want to hear his word.

At the dawn of her quarantine, when a doctor detects the physical after-effects of sexual violence, Isabelle Demongeot refuses to continue to hide what she has experienced. During nine years of her teenage years in Saint-Tropez, she was raped by her tennis coach Régis de Camaret. In the club shed where the balls were stored, in her hotel room the day before the tournaments or in the car of her attacker who brought her back to her parents after training.

If the facts are prescribed for her, the sportswoman chooses to tell her story in a book (Stolen service, published in 2007) and started looking for other victims. And she was not wrong. In the end, 26 women filed a complaint – including two not prescribed – against the one who was at the time one of the most popular coaches on the circuit. “There was an incredible chain of solidarity between the victims, remembers Isabelle Demongeot for The HuffPost. And this film is a tribute to the courageous victims who led this fight ”.

“When I spoke, no one believed me”

Because for the former champion of France and these other women, the fight was long and trying. “You are not going to stir up the past”, “we will forget all that”: Isabelle Demongeot remembers too well the reactions of those close to her and those around her at the time. Members of the tennis federation who no longer looked her in the eye when she told what he had done to her. Of all those who during the nine long years of proceedings told her that they “waited to see the verdict” to know if she was telling the truth. In 2014, following an appeal trial during which he was defended by Eric Dupont-Moretti, Régis de Camaret was sentenced to ten years in prison for rape and attempted rape.

“When I spoke, when we spoke, nobody believed us”, resumes the one who has since been largely involved in the liberation of the word and the reparation of the victims. “Every time I see victims talking, I am proud. And at the same time, it hurts because I tell myself that the road is going to be long. This is why I am asking the sports authorities to take a serious look at supporting speech, supporting victims. And the federations must also take legal action no matter what. ”

AP Photo / Laurent Cipriani