Pierre Ménès, accused of sexual assault, in police custody

Eric Fougere – Corbis via Getty Images

SEXUAL ASSAULT – Pierre Ménès, the former star columnist of Canal + targeted since November 20 by an investigation for “sexual assault”, was taken into custody this Thursday, December 9, according to sources familiar with the matter, confirming information from Parisian.

He is heard at the 1st judicial police district (1st DPJ), “at the request of the prosecution,” said a source familiar with the matter. His lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh, confirmed that Pierre Menès, who had asked in the media to be interviewed, was heard “under the statute of custody”.

At the end of the match PSG-Nantes of November 20 in Paris, a woman, receptionist at the Parc des Princes according to The Parisian, had reported to the police acts of sexual assault for which Pierre Ménès would be responsible, without filing a complaint. The same day, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation.

Complaint for “slanderous denunciation”

At the end of November, Pierre Ménès filed a complaint for “slanderous denunciation” in this affair. He produced three certificates from people “unanimously confirming that (he) spent all of his time by their side as soon as he arrived for the cocktail in the lodge, during the match and the cocktail after the match”, according to the complaint. consulted by AFP.

“They confirm that absolutely nothing happened and that Pierre Ménès behaved flawlessly”, according to this document. “Following this malicious report, a flood of press articles seriously damaged the honor and the consideration of Mr. Pierre Ménès, who in particular suffered from a depression,” he said.

Departure of Canal + amid accusations

Sidelined at the end of March after accusations of sexual assault, the 58-year-old former columnist of the “Canal Football Club” left the encrypted channel on July 1, ending nearly 12 years of collaboration.

This departure is the consequence of the broadcast on March 21 on Canal + of I’m not a bitch, I’m a journalist, documentary on sexism in sports editors and the revelation of incriminating sequences, cut during the editing at the request of the channel, suspected of having protected him.

Pierre Ménès, 58, is notably accused of having lifted off the air in 2016 the skirt of journalist Marie Portolano, co-director of the documentary. He says he does not remember it because of serious health problems at the time: a non-alcoholic cirrhosis which kept him away from the plateaus for seven months and required a double transplant of the liver and a kidney.

He is also criticized for having forcibly kissed journalist Isabelle Moreau on television in 2011, as well as columnist Francesca Antoniotti in 2016.

See also on Le HuffPost: These demonstrators #NousToutes take stock of the “great cause of Macron’s five-year term”