The former star columnist of Canal + Pierre Ménès has been targeted since November 20 by an investigation for “sexual assault”, AFP learned Monday from the Paris prosecutor’s office, confirming information from the Parisian.
According to the daily, Mr. Ménès is accused of having sexually assaulted a hostess during the PSG-Nantes match played the same day, by touching her chest. The person disputes the facts, said his lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh.
Threat of a complaint for “slanderous denunciation”
“The evening went very well and this is confirmed by the Cerfa certificates of the three people who accompanied him everywhere,” he added. “My client will file a complaint for slanderous denunciation if it undermines his honor or his consideration,” threatened the council of Pierre Ménès.
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 twelve years of collaboration.
Previous accusations
This departure is the consequence of the broadcast on March 21 on Canal + of a documentary on sexism in sports editors and the revelation of incriminating sequences, cut during 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.