The testimonies against PPDA add up. Three new women have come forward to justice and will soon be heard by investigators. Investigations as part of the preliminary investigation into rape and sexual assault targeting Patrick Poivre d’Arvor were relaunched on Wednesday, said the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, requested by AFP. It had been opened in December 2021 and 19 women have already been heard, ten of whom have filed a complaint, according to the count of the prosecution in March.
The 75-year-old man strongly denies the numerous accusations and has been questioned three times by investigators from the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP). He filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation against a dozen complainants.
An open judicial inquiry
In addition to this procedure, PPDA has been the subject of another preliminary investigation, closed, and is still the subject of a judicial investigation in Nanterre. 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 sexual harassment. 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.