“I can tell you one thing: I was overwhelmed with shame.
“In an interview granted to the media TL7, Pierre Gauttieri, chief of staff of the mayor of Saint-Etienne (Loire) Gaël Perdriau, shaken by a case of sextape blackmail against Gilles Artigues, former first deputy, finally express.
“I took the time to listen to the words that were mine, and reported by Mediapart.
I can tell you one thing: I was overwhelmed with shame, he confides to TL7.
These are remarks that are inadmissible, unacceptable, I would almost dare to say inexcusable for a chief of staff of a large community.
A man who has experience of public affairs should not let himself go to this kind of deviation.
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In a recording, broadcast by Mediapart on Monday, Pierre Gautierri is heard putting pressure on the first deputy mayor: “I have a video showing you the ass in the air with a guy.
It does not bother you ?
The very Catholic deputy Gilles Artigues very good father in something like that?
“, he says in this audio which would have been made during a meeting in the presence of the mayor in July 2018.
“If the fact that I go to jail makes you fall because you pass for an old pedal on the return (…) I have no problem”, he says in another recording dating according to Mediapart from November 2017.
"A moment of anger"
According to him, these words were pronounced "in a moment of anger, bewilderment".
The affair erupted at the end of August when the Mediapart news site published the detailed confessions of a former close friend of the municipal team on a "smearing of morals" organized according to him at the request of the mayor and his relatives.
Read alsoSextape blackmail in Saint-Etienne: "I gave my price, 50,000 euros", says the organizer of the ambush
The Lyon public prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation for "invasion of privacy, aggravated blackmail, embezzlement of public property by a person in charge of a public function, breach of trust and concealment of these offenses" after a complaint by Gilles Artigues.
If he assumes having made these remarks, Pierre Gauttieri assures that he will not resign and calls on the Stéphanois to “show indulgence towards him”.
As for the intimate images of the first deputy: “Neither the mayor nor myself are the sponsors of this video.
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