He had won the ultimate title in front of his audience, in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle) in 2013. Sacred world champion in French boxing at 24, Ozkan Kuyruk had become a local glory and a model of integration through sport.
Son of Turkish immigrants, always trained by his uncles, the young hope had chained the victories to finally become the locomotive of the club, one of the most famous in France.
But perhaps the beautiful story hid a darker side.
From this Friday, Ozkan Kuyruk must answer before the Assize Court for six rapes and four sexual assaults committed on young women between 2010 and 2016. "He does not deny being a flirt, or even having been a little heavy, but he never forced anyone.
He does not recognize himself in the portrait that is made of him and does not fear being confronted with his accusers, ”warns his lawyer Me Eléonore Dupleix.
However, she intends to request the postponement of the trial, because of the confinement and the sanitary situation, not very conducive, according to her, to "the serenity of the proceedings".
The matter will be considered at the opening of the trial.
Blackmail ace
Retired from the competition, married and father of a young child, Ozkan Kuryk benefited from a contract from the municipality as a sports leader when, in November 2015, a young woman filed a complaint against him.
She says she was approached to be a "ring girl" during a boxing competition scheduled a few days later.
To validate his selection, the young man would have attracted her to a hotel room, before taking pictures of her in her underwear, and forcing her to have sex by threatening to broadcast the pictures.
Placed in police custody, he was finally released.
But, two months later, a second complainant became known.
The day before, Ozkan Kuryk allegedly offered to drive her back to the exit of a bowling alley, when she was drunk and angry with her friends.
She was reportedly forcibly kept in her seat and forced to perform oral sex on him.
Pretend to love at least
Betrayed by his DNA, CCTV cameras and bruises on the young woman, Ozkan Kuyruk protests.
The analysis of his telephony will reveal that the same evening, he had tried to join many escort girls, in vain.
But he will maintain that this perfect stranger would have pounced on him and that the first complainant was in fact a prostitute, dissatisfied with the negotiated rate.
It is then that the investigators will exhume a complaint dating from 2010, at the time classified without follow-up.
The victim, a 17-year-old high school student, then spoke of harassment over several months and blackmail in order, the latter having unwisely sent him pictures of her naked.
Under the guise of resolving the situation, she was allegedly raped in a hotel room while being forcibly held.
"It's only a bad time to go", the young champion would have told him, regretting that she did not "at least pretend to like", and obsessed with the size of his penis - small, of after other complainants.
"A sex instead of the brain"
Thanks to the media coverage of the case, an avalanche of testimonies will reach the investigators, drawing the portrait of a real predator.
Strangers approached in the street, town hall employees, boxers ... In addition to his argument prowling around the contracts of "ring girl", the accused would have abused his status of champion and a form of impunity in the club run by his uncles .
He would thus have multiplied the intrusions and the attacks in the showers, where the members locked themselves because of his reputation of "pervert", but of which he held a duplicate key.
“He has a sex instead of the brain,” said one of his colleagues, tired of hearing him talk about his prowess.
At work, all evoke a young man who has become over the years arrogant and boastful, increasing absences and delays, but protected by the hierarchy.
The examination of his private life will also reveal violence against his wife and abysmal debts due to an addiction to sports betting.
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"He is the darling of a family deeply rooted in the associative and political life of the city, a good talker who was lucky during his first police custody, and who gradually moved up to the power ”, thus analyzes Me Alexandre Bouthier, lawyer of several plaintiffs.
"This case demonstrates all the progress that remains to be made in collecting the words of the complainants, complete on his side Me Frédéric Berna, who represents the high school student whose case was closed in 2010. Blackmail is an element of constraint.
Unfortunately, she had not been taken seriously at that time ... "
