The investigation in which Patrick Poivre d'Arvor was indicted for rape on December 18 was expanded to include two rapes and a sexual assault denounced by three other women.
The judicial investigation, expanded on February 27, was opened in December 2021 after a complaint with the creation of a civil party from the author Florence Porcel, who accuses her of two rapes.
The indictment concerns only one of these two accusations which allegedly occurred in 2009. The other allegedly occurred in 2004.
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The keys to supporting women in their working lives
“We are delighted that three files have been included in the procedure” (by Florence Porcel, editor’s
note
), Emmanuelle Dancourt, president of #MeTooMedia, a collective created in the wake of what became “The PPDA affair”
told
AFP.
.
“When 50 women went to the police to report rape, sexual assault and harassment perpetrated by a single individual, PPDA is a minimum,” she said.
In all, 49 women contacted the police, 24 filed complaints, including 12 for rape, and 1 for rape of a minor.
The sliding prescription as an option
“We have been fighting for three years and we have never been so close to the possibility of a trial,” Hélène Devynck, author of the book
Impunity
, told
AFP
, in which she denounces the modus operandi of the ex-presenter.
Her complaint for rape, which was one of the 23 testimonies of women filed as part of the first preliminary investigation opened into PPDA, was dismissed for prescription, in June 2021. “With several women whose case is prescribed as the mine, we will explore the principle of sliding prescription” in the hope of leading to a trial, she added.
This principle, introduced by a law of April 2021 concerning sexual violence inflicted on minors, makes it possible to extend the statute of limitations for rape if the same person subsequently rapes or sexually assaults another victim, until the statute of limitations date. of this new offense.
19 testimonies closed without further action
If three new complaints were added to the investigation opened in December 2021, the public prosecutor, however, closed the 19 other testimonies or complaints from women denouncing rape, assault or sexual harassment of which they accused PPDA.
The prosecution explained to
AFP
that it had classified the facts when they predated the creation of the alleged offense (here, sexual harassment) or when they were prescribed.
Marie-Laure Eude-Delattre, one of the complainants at the origin of this investigation, and whose complaint was closed on February 27, told AFP
her
“hope” in the face of the fact that “ three women see the investigation continue”, while recognizing that the dismissal of her complaint “hurts very much”.
She accuses the journalist of having raped her during the Cannes Film Festival in 1985 - she was 23 years old.
“We must think about the means of investigation against these men of power,” she added.
Justice must think about what it calls evidence.
Our word cannot truly be taken into account because justice is not carried out with the right tools.”