New damning accusations target the French literary world. THURSDAY, Libé has published the first part (out of six in total) from an investigation entitled “Les hommes de la rue du Bac”, which uncovers an old child crime network made up of several intellectuals, which is said to have been rampant in Paris in the 1970s and 1980s.
A chilling story in which Inès Chatin, a woman now aged 50, testifies to having been the victim of sexual abuse and rape committed by men close to her adoptive father, from the age of 4 to 13. Despite the statute of limitations, a preliminary investigation was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office last October, after being requested by Inès Chatin.
Among the men cited in this article, all from “the Parisian intelligentsia of the 1970s-1980s”, we find in particular Gabriel Matzneff, already at the heart of an investigation into rape of minorsbut also a member of the French Academy or the founder of the Point.
“Sordid sexual ‘games’” and rape
It was in particular at the family home, at 97 rue du Bac, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, that Inès Chatin and other children were allegedly victims of “sordid sexual “games”” and rape, as recounted by Libé. Violence perpetrated during sessions with macabre scenes, the story of which is unbearable. “If anyone cried or showed resistance, it was on him that the men focused, insisted,” says Inès Chatin in this testimony that is as painful as it is courageous.
Among the men implicated, there is first of all his adoptive father, the doctor Jean-François Lemaire, who died several years ago and “fascinated by circles of power and secret societies”, it is specified. There is also the writer Gabriel Matzneff, already at the heart of an investigation for rape of minors after the publication of Consent by Vanessa Springora in 2020. Contacted by Libéhe did not respond to their requests.
The article also quotes former member of the French Academy Jean-François Revel, who died in 2006. “Faced with the seriousness of the accusations made, we hope that the justice system which has been seized will be able to establish what really happened », declared to the daily his children Eve and Matthieu Ricard, as well as Nicolas Revel. “This is the expectation of the victim who filed the complaint and whose sincerity and pain we in no way doubt. This is also our expectation because these accusations plunge us into even deeper disbelief,” they declare.
“I want justice to confront them with the seriousness of their actions”
In this first article, we also find Claude Imbert, the founder of the magazine “Le Point”, who died in 2016. “He loved women, but not little girls. We are in the #MeToo era, it’s our McCarthyism,” his son, lawyer Jean-Luc Imbert, initially responded. After the publication of the investigation, he wanted to add these words: “It goes without saying that I can only add that, if the facts reported are accurate, which I persist in wanting to doubt, I am overwhelmed and obviously deeply sorry for Inès, not suspecting for a second the possibility that my father, like those I knew among the people mentioned, could stray into such abject and unacceptable behavior. »
Finally, the name of the lawyer François Gibault also appears, “defender in their time of Bokassa and Gaddafi”, underlines Libé. In a letter sent by his advisor Jérémie Assous, the 92-year-old man “vigorously contests the allegations of Inès Chatin” and her “inaccurate” account. Likewise, he assures “that he has never witnessed the slightest criminal act, and would not have failed, if that had been the case, to put an end to it and immediately denounce it to the authorities”.
For her part, Inès Chatin stressed that she did not want revenge but sought justice. “Going to prison would no longer make sense. I want justice to confront them with the seriousness of their actions. Attacking children is unspeakable,” she said, adding that she wanted to act “to stop the reproduction” of child criminal behavior.