Accusing former fashion figures like Gérald Marie or Jean-Luc Brunel of having raped them in the 1980s or 1990s, some when they were minors, a dozen ex-models demanded the imprescriptibility of sex crimes on minors, this Tuesday, during a conference in the Senate.
The Dutch Thysia Huisman claims to have been “drugged and raped” by Jean-Luc Brunel in 1991. He was indicted and imprisoned in December for “rape” and disputes the charges. “I didn’t say anything to the police at the time: I was so scared, I was so ashamed. It almost destroyed me, ”she said, in English, very moved.
“I’m still ashamed”
“You must eliminate the prescription for victims of sexual abuse,” said Lesa Amoore, addressing parliamentarians, also in English. This other ex-model, now a photographer, says she was a victim of Gerald Marie for three years in the early 1990s. “I’m still ashamed. I am not completely healed. I hope that the limitation can be lifted, ”also declared in English Jill Dodd, who accuses Gerald Marie of having violated her.
Gérald Marie “denies with dismay these false and defamatory allegations”, had indicated his lawyer Me Céline Bekerman at the beginning of September. Twelve women and a former BBC journalist, Lisa Brinkworth, at the origin of the investigation opened in September 2020 in Paris targeting Gerald Marie, spoke Tuesday at this conference, which was under embargo until Wednesday: some from Paris, most via the Internet.
Towards a code of good conduct for agents and agents?
Lawyer of many declared victims of Gérald Marie and Jean-Luc Brunel, Me Anne-Claire Le Jeune indicated that “the extension of the limitation periods still seems insufficient because of the traumatic amnesia but also of the psychological consequences on the victims” and pleaded for an “imprescriptibility of sexual crimes” on minors. The centrist Senator Nathalie Goulet, who chaired the conference, indicated her wish for a “revision of the limitation periods and the obligation of a code of good conduct for agents and agents”.
The French parliament adopted a law in April which notably provides for a mechanism allowing, under certain conditions, the limitation period of 30 years for rape of a minor to be extended if the same person subsequently rapes another child. But like these ex-models, some associations and personalities demand that crimes targeting minors, which victims can take decades to denounce, be declared imprescriptible.