“It’s defamation
. ”
In an Instagram post published Sunday evening, emergency physician Patrick Pelloux reacted for the first time to the accusations of sexual harassment to which he is the subject. Earlier in the week, as part of a
Paris Match
investigation , Karine Lacombe, head of the infectious diseases hospital department at Saint-Antoine hospital (Paris) accused the doctor of
“sexual and moral harassment”.
Already in her book
Women will save the hospital
(Stock, 2023), she described him as a man with a
“lustful gaze”,
“wandering hands”
and
with
“behavior marked by domination”.
On Instagram, the emergency media said he was
"stunned to learn of Karine Lacombe's accusations and the rumors relayed in this article (that of Paris Match, Editor's note)",
which he
"strongly contests". “I do not wish to react further today in order to preserve the serenity of useful debates around sexism and sexual violence,”
says the doctor, also a former columnist for
Charlie Hebdo. “I thank my loved ones, my colleagues, my colleagues and all those who have given me their support in recent days
. ”
Karine Lacombe's speech triggered a real
#MeToo
in the hospital sector. In the wake of the publication of the investigation, the infectious disease specialist received dozens of messages from young doctors denouncing sexual harassment from their superiors. Karine Lacombe herself declared that the example of Patrick Pelloux, against whom she does not intend to file a complaint, was only a means of freeing speech to a broader extent.
“I spoke about him, but what I am trying to denounce above all is a general atmosphere,”
the head of the hospital infectious diseases department at Saint-Antoine hospital
explained to Le
Figaro on Saturday.