“PPDA case: they accuse”, title Release this Tuesday. The number devotes seven pages to accusations of sexual violence against the former star presenter of the TF1 newscast, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. After the preliminary investigation against the journalist was dismissed, eight women, including seven with their faces uncovered, testified to acts of rape, sexual assault and harassment. Stories that reveal a “brutal modus operandi and a feeling of total impunity”, writes the newspaper.
“I was not aware of these facts”
Asked about this number, Jean-Pierre Pernaut, who presented the 1pm newscast of the first channel for more than thirty years,
reacted this Tuesday on Europe 1. “In twenty years, I’ve never heard of these things,” he says. I did not defend PPDA, I was told, “What do you think of these complaint stories?” I don’t know, I, next to PPDA, have never heard of this kind of thing. I know that PPDA was a bit heavy with the girls, they talked about it from time to time while laughing, it is the only thing that I can testify ”. And to conclude: “There are testimonies today, I read them, I look at them, but I was not aware of these facts when I shared my professional life with Patrick”.
Several testimonies in Release claim that channel management was aware. Muriel Reus, deputy director of a subsidiary of TF1 at the material time, recounts having narrowly escaped sexual assault in 2005 by PPDA. “The next day, I called Patrick Le Lay, CEO of TF1 at the time, to tell him about this surreal and pathetic scene. (…) Patrick Le Lay answers me: “He also dared with you?” », We can read in the daily newspaper. For her part, Cécile Thimoreau, who spent fourteen years at TF1, tells in her hearing that she spoke of an assault to Robert Namias, editor-in-chief of 20h.