The Paris Criminal Court will deliver its decision on June 1 on the defamation lawsuits brought by jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot against
France Télévisions
and one of its journalists for a report from May 2021 on accusations of "
rape
" against him .
.
Pierre-Charles Boudot was considered one of the best jockeys in the world, but was suspended in May 2021 after he was indicted by an investigating judge in Senlis for "
rape
", after a complaint relating to facts dating from February 2021. He is also a witness assisted for facts denounced by another complainant, dating from August 2015. In a report broadcast on May 16, 2021 on the Stade 2 program, journalist Thierry Vildary gave the floor to the two complainants, who presented their version of the facts.
The jockey, under judicial control, had responded through a press release from his lawyer.
On Monday, under threat of a defamation conviction and a fine, the journalist defended the serious nature of his investigation: he said he questioned the victims at length "
to see
" if their version "
was coherent
", and underlined attempts as numerous as they were unsuccessful to obtain extensive testimony from the respondent or his counsel, facing the camera.
An “extreme close link” between the journalist and the complainants?
The lawyer of the "
greatest French jockey of all time
" in this procedure, Me Olivier Baratelli, has crushed a supposed "
extreme close link
" of the journalist with the complainants, portraying him as a "
private investigator in (their) pay
who has “
done his job badly
”.
"
You actively participated in the investigation in support of the second complainant
," he said again.
On the contrary, Me Juliette Felix, lawyer for this "
field journalist
", defended a report which "
is not a mission against Pierre-Charles Boudot
" but reports "
both points of view
", with "
a factual basis sufficient
” and “
a serious investigation
”.
She felt that the Boudot camp had "
caricatured
" and "
distorted
" the journalist's report by "
removing the contradictory
" broadcast by
France TV
.
Very moved, "Sophie", the young woman whose complaint earned Mr. Boudot his indictment, had during the hearing testified to the "
moral and mental support
" provided by the journalist before the broadcast of the report, stressing that he “
never forced her to do this interview
” and “
worked according to the rules of the art
”.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/S7UVDTX7DREC7DXVCZN6MEKGBY.jpg)
