“He rocks me on the bed, undresses me, penetrates me”: what we know about the new rape complaints against PPDA – Nice matin

The former star presenter of the TF1 television news, 75, is accused by around thirty women of rape, assault and / or sexual harassment. Two new complaints were filed and a report was sent to justice for rape and sexual assault in September, according to Liberation, which published this damning testimony in the PPDA case on Monday. 1. Complaint for sexual assault in 2003 The author and journalist Bénédicte Martin filed a complaint on September 12 in Paris for a sexual assault which allegedly took place in 2003, when she was 24 years old. His testimony had already been reported by Liberation in December. Bénédicte Martin has just published her first book when she is invited to Vol de nuit, the literary program broadcast on TF1 and presented by Patrick Poivre d’Arvor between 1999 and 2008. The host, “who covers her with praise” , offers him to attend the filming of an 8 p.m. newscast. She accepts under pressure from her press officer. It was after the recording of the JT, during which he was given “the unpleasant feeling of being part of a lot of women who would be distilled every day of the week”, that the sexual assault would have taken place. Bénédicte Martin is led by a PPDA assistant to her office, where he makes her wait half an hour before arriving. The journalist would have drawn a parallel between his daughter and the anorexia nervosa he detects in the writer, before standing behind her, grabbing her by the throat and immobilizing her with an armbar, according to Benedict Martin. She would have struggled, he would have pulled up her skirt and kissed her before she managed to run away. The writer tells Liberation that she explained to her editor Frédéric Beigbeder and her press officer the events, which they would have minimized: “Yes, good, but he’s like that, Patrick, everyone knows it. You were expecting what? If you want to write, there are obligatory passages… All the young girls have gone through it. Your book is doing very well. What are you complaining about?”. 2. Report for rape in 2000 The second woman to testify with the media is an author who remained anonymous to protect the forthcoming publication of one of her novels. She wrote to the public prosecutor on September 12 to recount the rape allegedly committed in 2000 by Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. Like Bénédicte Martin, Juliette (the first name has been changed) is invited to the show Vol de nuit and is then dragged into the PPDA office. According to her, he would have pressed her to a table, would have lifted her skirt, introduced her penis and ejaculated right away inside her when she could not have moved, paralyzed. With Liberation, Juliette tells a “filthy and revealing detail”: next to PPDA is a box of wipes, so that they clean themselves. A practice that seems regular, organized, hygienic. She has the impression of being “a piece of meat that we use”, that the rapes would be for the presenter a “way of marking his territory”, embellished with exchanges of good practices to ensure silence and the psychological domination of his alleged victims. 3. Complaint for rape in 1985 and sexual assault in 1991 or 1992 The third woman to testify is the writer Margot Cauquil-Gleizes, who was then called Anne, and whose story had already been partially told in Liberation in November under the first name Amelie. She filed a complaint on September 9 in Paris for a rape allegedly committed in 1983 and a sexual assault in 1991 or 1992. Anne Cauquil-Gleizes was 16 when she contacted PPDA to read her writings. He invites her a few months later to a hotel in Sète. She is taken to her room but “does not dare to refuse”. Immediately, “he rocks me on the bed, undresses me, penetrates me. It lasts barely five minutes. I remain completely passive, I don’t understand what is happening to me”. Anne Cauquil-Gleizes tells Liberation that PPDA would have gone to shower before saying to her: “Now, miss, I have to do, I have appointments”. He would not even have touched the pocket containing the writings of the teenager, the official reason for this appointment. “After the meeting in Sète, I continued to send him texts. As soon as I had a relaxation of a few weeks, he called me, as one maintains his seraglio.” A few years later, Anne Cauquil-Gleizes, who has since changed her first name to Margot and suffers from depression, resumes an appointment with Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. He gives her the “set trick”: invites her to the filming of the JT then she is brought by one of his secretaries to his office. As soon as he arrived, he said to her: “This newspaper was really very difficult, would you give me a little treat?”, before taking his penis out of his pants. Anne Cauquil-Gleizes would have yelled, to which PPDA would have retorted: “In that case, miss, good evening”. “As he is not violent, he coats everything with a certain charm, he serves himself, we are only a piece of meat. It took me 37 years to put the right word on what is to me happened. And it was the police, when I testified in the first preliminary investigation, that made me realize that.” Where is the investigation? Patrick Poivre d’Arvor was heard in free hearing in July as part of an open investigation into rape and sexual assault where at least seven women testified, AFP learned on Tuesday, September 20 from judicial sources and close to the file. The former star presenter of the TF1 television news, who disputes these accusations and whose lawyers could not be reached immediately on Tuesday, is the subject of two investigations in Nanterre. First investigation The first, conducted by the prosecution, was opened following two complaints in December 2021, one for rape in 1985 and the other for sexual assault in 2013. These facts appear to be time-barred. In the context of this case, at least seven women, aged between 20 and 60, testified this summer, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. At least three of them filed a complaint. Second investigation A second investigation is in progress, entrusted to an examining magistrate and relating to the accusations of rape of the writer Florence Porcel. Florence Porcel, now 39, is the first woman to file a complaint in February 2021. She accuses Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of forcing her to have sex in 2004 and fellatio in 2009. An investigation preliminary hearing followed and collected the testimony of 22 other women for rape, sexual assault and/or sexual harassment. The investigation had been closed without further action in June 2021, mainly for prescription. Florence Porcel then filed a complaint again, this time with a civil action, to obtain the opening of a new investigation entrusted to the investigating judges. Bypassing the prescription At the end of June, the investigation chamber of the Versailles Court of Appeal extended the scope of these investigations to the facts appearing to be prescribed. The abandonment of proceedings is not inevitable and the starting point of the period during which justice can investigate can, in certain cases, be postponed. This is particularly the case if the investigators determine that the incriminating facts have repeated themselves in a series. In other words, the investigation targeting Patrick Poivre d’Arvor has changed its approach. The judges are now analyzing the rape charges against him as a whole to determine their possible serial nature, which would make it possible to circumvent their prescription.