After a complaint filed by a former journalist from BFMTV / RMC, an investigation was opened against journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin for suspicion of sexual assault, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
The investigations were entrusted to the police station of the XVIth arrondissement, said the same source. The complainant, a former journalist for BFMTV and RMC, filed a complaint with the 16th arrondissement police station and was received on January 14 by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Facts dating back to 2013
This 33-year-old woman, who worked “for several years” with the BFMTV / RMC morning journalist, claims that he “grabbed her by the neck and tried to kiss her several times. occasions” in a swimming pool of a hotel in Calvi (Haute-Corse) in 2013, during a business trip, according to the newspaper account The Parisian published on Saturday confirmed by Me Laure Heinich, the complainant’s lawyer.
This journalist is said to have “struggled” and managed to get out of the pool. Mr. Bourdin would then have said: “I always get what I want”. Then he would have sent him, still according to this account, “for several months insistent emails and SMS”. These facts are possibly prescribed. The host denied these accusations. “I know this person, and I worked with her. I admit having bathed with her in the swimming pool of this hotel. But I never tried to kiss her by force, neither her nor anyone else, ”he replied to the daily Le Parisien.
Jean-Jacques Bourdin still on the air
The Altice Media group, owner of RMC and BFMTV, announced on Sunday that it was launching an internal investigation “to ensure that no facts of this type have been brought to the attention of the managers or colleagues of the interested parties (complainant and questioned )”. “We are not minimizing this accusation or giving it a disproportionate dimension”, had declared to the Parisian Marc-Olivier Fogiel, general manager of BFMTV, assuring that “there is nothing which prevents Jean-Jacques Bourdin from doing his job ” .
The SDJs of BFMTV, RMC and RMC Sport for their part wondered “about the relevance of keeping Jean-Jacques Bourdin on the air during the investigation”. The management of Altice Media had specified to follow “with the greatest attention the possible developments of this affair” and had said that it was ready to take “all the measures which could be necessary according to its evolution”. Jean-Jacques Bourdin is preparing to launch his new political program “France in the eyes”, an interview conducted in the region and live with the main candidates for the Elysée, inaugurated Tuesday evening by Valérie Pécresse in Corrèze.