Patrick Poivre d’Arvor was indicted on Monday December 18 for a rape committed in 2009, as part of the judicial investigation opened after a complaint from the author Florence Porcel, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office reported Tuesday evening. Agence France-Presse (AFP). This is the first indictment targeting the former star presenter of TF1, accused by around twenty women of rape or sexual assault.
The former journalist, who “strongly contests the alleged facts” according to his lawyers, was also placed under the status of assisted witness for a second fact denounced by the complainant, dating from 2004, specified the prosecution, adding that this was “prescribed”.
The investigating magistrates did not follow the requisitions of the public prosecutor who had requested the dismissal of the two facts, again according to this source. The former presenter has not been placed under judicial supervision, she further indicates.
“Mr. Poivre d’Arvor firmly contests the facts alleged by Mr.me Porcel as he has done since day one and has produced numerous material elements contradicting them”reacted the lawyers of “PPDA”, Jacqueline Laffont and Julie Benedetti, in a press release obtained by AFP.
22 women heard
In addition to this procedure, the former presenter, 76 years old, is the subject of a preliminary investigation opened in December 2021 in which twenty-two women were heard and in which he has already been questioned by investigators from the Repression Brigade of delinquency against the person (BRDP).
A first preliminary investigation targeting him was opened in February 2021, after the complaint from writer Florence Porcel. The author, aged 40, accuses Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of having forced her into sexual intercourse in 2004 and fellatio in 2009.
Twenty-two other women then testified about rape, sexual assault and/or sexual harassment. In June 2021, the investigations were closed, mainly because the facts reported were time-barred.
Florence Porcel then filed a complaint again, this time with a civil claim, to obtain the opening of a new investigation entrusted to investigating judges.