The Court of Cassation renders its decision on Wednesday afternoon on the appeal filed by Sophie Patterson-Spatz after the dismissal, confirmed on appeal, rendered in favor of Gérald Darmanin whom she accuses of rape, which he contests.
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During the non-public hearing before the highest judicial court on February 17, both the rapporteur and the advocate general concluded that the complainant's appeal was rejected, two sources close to the case indicated.
If the Court of Cassation follows this position, the Minister of the Interior will be definitively exonerated.
But the Court can also order a new hearing in the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal to examine the dismissal of the case rendered in July 2022 in favor of Gérald Darmanin.
The minister's lawyer did not wish to speak.
“Ms. Patterson expects from our highest court that the question of consent will finally be treated as a question of law, and not simply as a question of “fact”
,” her lawyer, Me Élodie Tuaillon-Hibon, told AFP.
“Proof of rape must ultimately be done at the hearing, the investigation can only bring to light charges, and in this case, despite deficiencies, they exist
,” she added.
An accusation maintained since 2017
Sophie Patterson-Spatz, 52, has accused Gérald Darmanin of raping her in 2009 since spring 2017. At the time, she contacted him as a project manager in the legal affairs department of the UMP (now LR), to obtain support in the review of a conviction in 2005 for blackmail and malicious calls against a former companion.
According to her, Gérald Darmanin had dangled his possible support to her during an evening in Paris via a letter to the Chancellery, and had asked for a sexual relationship in exchange.
Both admit to having had sexual intercourse.
But Sophie Patterson-Spatz believes she was forced to
“go to the pan”
when Mr. Darmanin, then aged 26, told her:
“you too will have to help me”
.
For Me Tuaillon-Hibon, it is a
“surprise rape”
and an
“extorted”
sexual relationship ,
“neither free nor consensual”
.
For his part, the Minister of the Interior had claimed during the procedure to have
“given in to the charms”
of an
“enterprising”
complainant .
After investigations closed three times, Ms. Patterson-Spatz obtained the appointment of an investigating judge in the summer of 2020.
Gérald Darmanin was not indicted and he benefited from a dismissal of the case in July 2022, confirmed by the investigating chamber in January 2023. The complainant then filed an appeal.