When we talk about the past of this tennis club in the south of Essonne, we remember a lot of things.
Coaches, in particular.
One in particular: Stéphane, said the left-hander, 47 years old today.
"He was going out with a player", we can hear like noises from the corridors.
This was indeed the case in 2002.
Except that this player was only 12 years old at the time and that for these facts, the forties is being prosecuted this Wednesday, October 7 before the criminal court of Evry-Courcouronnes for sexual assault and possession of child pornography.
It is while growing up that Charline understands that what she had lived as a child was not normal.
"When I was 29 years old, the same age as him at the time of the events, I realized that it was not possible to have views on a child," says Charline *.
In 2019, she filed a complaint against her former coach.
"I didn't have the maturity to say no"
When he starts to train her, she already has 5 years of seniority in this small club.
Quickly, Stéphane makes advances to him.
“He was a trustworthy person even though he could be bossy and feared.
I didn't have the maturity to say no, ”she analyzes today.
Sex does not take long.
“I used to go see him at his place before going to college.
Sometimes I would arrive two hours late for classes, she recalls.
At noon, he would pick me up.
He wanted several times a day ”.
He also took pictures.
This detail which she remembers, she indicates to the gendarmes when she files a complaint.
Investigators found the images on his hard drive.
For the file, they print them.
"There are pages," says a source close to the investigation.
"A moral constraint with a relationship of authority"
At 12 years old, Charline is not really aware that what she is experiencing is not healthy.
But there are signs.
"I was scratching myself, I was hitting myself," she continues.
When she is 18, the relationship ends.
Begins a complicated adult life.
"I can not make my life, she continues.
He stole everything from me.
"
During the confrontation, the coach did not deny the facts.
He just felt that Charline "had the right to say no".
Not so simple according to a judicial source.
“Considering her age, she didn't understand.
There was a moral constraint with a relationship of authority.
The facts could have been qualified as rape and went to the Assize Court.
Because of the age of the facts, they were corrected for sexual assault with the victim's agreement, ”explains the same source.
According to our information, the coach has not taught since 2012.
In the various auditions to which Le Parisien had access, there was also talk of evenings organized by this coach with "all underage players".
"Nothing made it possible to determine that there had been other victims", answers a judicial source.
Charline is therefore the only complainant.
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But on the bench of civil parties, she will have at her side the French Tennis Federation (FFT) which was formed after Le Parisien requested it to react to this case.
“We have set up a listening unit,” we respond within the FFT.
We also conduct training and awareness-raising actions on the subjects of sexual violence against minors and abuse of authority ”.
"Tennis for me is over"
Faced with the scandals which are multiplying in sport in general, but not only, with these relations revealed between adults and children - as between the writer Gabriel Matzneff and Vanessa Springora - Charline coward: "It shows that I am not the only one but It also scares me because I wonder how many we are in this case ”.
On the eve of the hearing, she confides: "I need him even if I am afraid of being in the same room with him".
When we met her in February before the trial originally scheduled for April 3, dismissed for confinement, Charline confided: “Tennis for me, it's over.
I tried in another club, but everyone knows each other ”.
A former club mate she met recalled an anecdote: “He made you wear skirts or dresses”.
That Charline didn't remember anymore.
* The first name has been changed.