Despite numerous classifications, the complainants' “hope” has been rekindled: the investigation, in which Patrick Poivre d'Arvor is already accused of raping Florence Porcel, has been expanded to include two rapes and a sexual assault of three other women.
• Also read: Former French television star presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arvor has been charged with rape
For his part, the former star presenter of TF1 has always firmly rejected the numerous allegations against him. His lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, could not immediately be reached Wednesday.
The investigating magistrates, who are already investigating two rapes denounced by the author Florence Porcel, can now investigate three more facts: two rapes and a sexual assault, the Nanterre public prosecutor's office announced.
On the other hand, the Public Prosecutor's Office closed the 19 additional testimonies or complaints from women denouncing rape, assault or sexual harassment, after an investigation was opened in December 2021 in which 22 women accused PPDA.
Marie-Laure Eude-Delattre is one of the complainants behind this opening of an investigation. His appeal was closed on Tuesday.
“The fact that three women see the investigation continue is a hope,” she told AFP. But the classification of the vast majority of complaints, including hers, “hurts a lot,” adds this woman who accuses the journalist of raping her during the 1985 Cannes Festival when she was 23 years old.
“We need to think about the means of investigating these people in power,” Ms. Eude-Delattre continued. “Justice must think about what it calls evidence. Our word cannot truly be taken into account because justice is not carried out through the right means.”
For its part, the public prosecutor's office recalled having carried out “a careful study” of each statement, “several free hearings” of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor by investigators from the Brigade for the Suppression of Crimes Against the Person (BRDP) leading to a “confrontation” of the defendant with of a woman.
The public prosecutor's office explained to AFP that it classified these facts because they predated the alleged crime (here sexual harassment) or because they were mandatory.
“Possibility of a trial”
The judicial investigation, which was expanded on Tuesday, was launched at the end of 2021 following a lawsuit against the establishment of a civil party by 40-year-old author Florence Porcel. Patrick Poivre d'Arvor was charged in December with one of two reported rapes in 2009.
“We are pleased that three files are included in the process,” commented Emmanuelle Dancourt for #MeTooMedia, of which she is chair, a collective created in the wake of the start of the PPDA affair.
“If 50 women went to the police to report rape, sexual assault and harassment by a single person, PPDA is a minimum,” she estimated.
“We have been fighting for three years and have never been so close to the possibility of a trial,” said Hélène Devynck, author of the book “Impunity”, in which she denounces the actions of the ex-moderator and his rape. The lawsuit was filed in June 2021 The first investigation, in which 23 women testified, was dismissed due to the statute of limitations.
However, Ms. Devynck says, “with several women whose cases, like mine, are past the statute of limitations, we will explore the principle of sliding statute of limitations” in the hope of leading to a trial.
This principle, introduced by a law of April 2021 on sexual violence against minors, allows the statute of limitations for rape to be extended when the same person subsequently rapes or sexually assaults another victim, until the expiry of the statute of limitations for the crime.