This Wednesday, the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal filed by Sophie Patterson-Spatz, who accuses Gérald Darmanin of having raped her in 2009, making definitive the dismissal rendered in favor of the Minister of the Interior in this case.
After investigations closed three times and procedural disputes, Sophie Patterson-Spatz obtained the appointment of an investigating judge in 2020.
Gérald Darmanin, who contests the accusations, was not indicted and the magistrate dismissed the case in his favor in 2022, confirmed on appeal the following year.
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.
A sexual relationship recognized by both parties
Sophie Patterson-Spatz, 52, has accused Gérald Darmanin of raping her in 2009 since the spring of 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 Gérald Darmanin, then 26 years old, 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 .