He no longer runs the streets.
Street artist Wilfrid A., accused by dozens of women, was indicted Friday for "rape" and "sexual assault" and placed in pre-trial detention.
Known for his tag "Love runs the streets", the fifty-year-old photographer, accustomed to the Butte Montmartre in Paris (18th century), was presented to a Parisian examining magistrate at the end of his police custody, which began on Wednesday to the 2nd judicial police district (2nd DPJ) as part of a preliminary investigation opened on June 26, four days after the publication of damning testimonies in the magazine Néon.
Following the article, a first complaint was filed in June, then 25 women aged 19 to 49 in turn reported the facts to justice in early July.
Some were minors at the time of the facts: twelve accused him of "rape", thirteen of "sexual assault".
Drugs or alcohol "to relax"
According to Me Valentine Rebérioux and Me Louise Bouchain, their lawyers, and according to all the testimonies collected, in particular by Le Parisien, Wilfrid A. had a methodology to capture his prey.
He spotted them in the street, often in Montmartre, his neighborhood, complimented them, then, once his identity and profession had been revealed, offered them to take pictures, guaranteeing them a future in modeling.
When they arrive at her home, young women are often offered drugs or alcohol to "relax".
Then come the connections, the first gestures, the street artist sometimes becoming aggressive, even violent.
Wilfrid A. "disputes the facts, he was also placed under the status of assisted witness for a number of them", reacted to AFP his lawyers, Me Marie Violleau and Me Joseph Cohen-Sabban .
According to them, "the chronology of the filing of complaints raises questions".
"In search of the buzz, a certain press has turned into an association of victims to the detriment of judicial time, which is nevertheless essential to the sacrosanct manifestation of the truth", they declared.