Three new women have come forward to justice, as part of the preliminary investigation for rape and sexual assault against the former star presenter Patrick Poivre d’Arvor.
Three new women have come forward to justice, and the investigations, as part of the preliminary investigation for rape and sexual assault targeting Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, were relaunched on Wednesday, said the Nanterre prosecutor’s office. They will soon be heard by the investigators.
This investigation was opened in December 2021 and 19 women have already been heard, 10 of whom have filed a complaint, according to the count of the prosecution in March. Contacted, the lawyer for the former star presenter of TF1 could not be reached immediately.
The 75-year-old man strongly denies the numerous accusations and has been questioned three times by investigators from the Personal Crime Repression Brigade (BRDP). In addition to this procedure, PPDA has been the subject of another preliminary investigation, closed, and is still the subject of a judicial inquiry in Nanterre.
For his part, he filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation against a dozen complainants. The first preliminary investigation targeting him was opened in February 2021, after the complaint by the writer Florence Porcel. The 39-year-old author accuses Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of forcing her to have sex in 2004 and fellatio in 2009. Twenty-two other women then testified to rape, sexual assault and / or harassment sexual.
In June 2021, the investigations had been closed without further action, mainly because the facts denounced were prescribed. Florence Porcel then filed a complaint again, this time with a civil action, to obtain the opening of a new investigation entrusted to the investigating judges. This judicial investigation is still in progress, in Nanterre, and was the subject of a rare decision by the investigating chamber of the Versailles court of appeal.
At the end of June, the Court of Appeal extended the scope of these investigations to the facts appearing to be prescribed, recalling that the abandonment of the proceedings was not inevitable and that the starting point of the period during which the justice system can investigate could, in some cases, be postponed. This is particularly the case if the investigators determine that the incriminating facts have repeated themselves and constitute a series.