TV host Jean-Marc Morandini pleaded Monday “clumsiness” or “humor” to try to justify the sexual messages exchanged with two teenagers, which earned him to appear in Paris for “corruption of minors”.
Punctuated with smileys, “lol” and “mdr”, these messages were sent to 15-year-olds (Romuald* in 2013 and Simon in 2015-2016) and consisted for one of evoking sexual scenarios and, for the second, to ask him, for several months, to send a photo of him naked.
The star host of CNews is also appearing before the criminal court for having, in 2009, cast a 16-year-old youngster during which he allegedly asked him to strip naked and masturbate for the needs of the remake of a film . If he recognizes “clumsiness”, “missteps” and “recklessness”, Jean-Marc Morandini, 57, disputed any offense at the bar.
“Sexuality is not taboo”
Regarding the messages on masturbation exchanged with Romuald, then a fan of the host, the defendant mentioned exchanges “without taboos”: “These are very open exchanges because sexuality is not taboo. Above all, he affirmed that he was unaware of the young age of his interlocutor even if the president of the court read a message in which Romuald interrupts a conversation because his “mother has to make him recite his [cours d’] story “.
Jean-Marc Morandini also assured that he ceased all exchanges with him as soon as he learned his age. The facilitator will, however, admit that he was informed of the minority of Simon, another plaintiff. For several months, he will have asked her in vain to send him a photo of him naked. “We are in humor, he tried to defend himself. It’s a valve that is heavy, but at no time is there any sexual intention. »
Coming to the bar, the plaintiff has a completely different memory. “At no time was it humorous. I asked him to stop, “he said, explaining however that he had difficulty in stopping the exchanges with the host:” I wanted to work in the media, it was the only door that I had to be able to attend a broadcast. Simon will end up sending a photo of a penis found on the Web to Jean-Marc Morandini, who will then cease his exchanges.
* names have been changed