A second investigation into the rape of minors has been opened in Paris against the French writer Gabriel Matzneff, who was accused of pedophilia following revelations by publisher Vanessa Springora in 2020, the public prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday.
The investigation was launched on October 23 after this woman sent a letter to the prosecutor’s office in which she claimed that she had been raped by the writer between the ages of 4 and 13.
The first investigation against Gabriel Matzneff, launched after the publication of the book “Consent” by Vanessa Springora, is currently being analyzed by the Paris Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigation in the second investigation “will focus on both the characterization and qualification” of the facts and the statute of limitations, with the alleged facts dating back “several decades,” the prosecution added.
The lawyer for the now 86-year-old writer Emmanuel Pierrat did not immediately respond.
The woman behind the second investigation accuses her adoptive father, who was a doctor, of being “complicit” in drugging her before she was raped by Gabriel Matzneff and of raping her himself, according to her lawyer Rodolphe Costantino .
The crimes were allegedly committed in Paris in the context of “social circles and influence.”
If they are a priori, she was also an “eyewitness to the sexual abuse and rape” committed by Gabriel Matzneff “on three children who were also adopted by families from the same environment,” confirms Mr. Costantino to AFP.
Your client also fears that children could still be “in contact” with Gabriel Matzneff today, especially with a minor whose father is close to the writer.
Vanessa Springora was the first to testify publicly against Gabriel Matzneff – a long-celebrated author on the French literary scene who was awarded the Renaudot Essay Prize in 2013 – and told in “Le Consent” about their affair, which began when she was still He wasn’t even 14 years old, he was almost 50.
The author, who has long benefited from the tolerance of part of the intelligentsia and the media in France, describes himself as a “pedophile” and describes in detail his relationships with minors and his penchant for sex tourism in Asia in numerous works.
He has since said he “regrets” his past pedophile practices in Asia and argued that “back then” “no one ever talked about a crime.”