The Paris prosecutor’s office closed the investigation into former minister Jean-Michel Baylet without further action due to prescription. The procedure had been opened after the daughter of a former political friend denounced acts of rape and sexual assault which would date from the 1980s, when she was a minor. The boss of the Dispatch from the South is accused by Nathalie Collin, daughter of former PRG senator of Tarn-et-Garonne Yvon Collin, of rape and sexual assault when she was between 12 and 14 years old, in the early 1980s, which he disputes .
“What is important is that the prosecution does not say that it has classified because the facts are insufficiently characterized”, underlined Friday with AFP Me Zoé Royaux, lawyer for Yvon Collin. Requested by AFP, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that it had closed the procedure without further action due to the acquisition of the prescription for public action. According to a source familiar with the matter, the ranking dates from January 17.
“Imlikelihoods”
“A minimal communication consisting in saying that he is classified for prescription does not reflect the reality of an investigation having demonstrated the implausibilities of an accusation brought 41 years later, by the daughter of a political opponent, recently convicted of drug trafficking. ‘influence”, reacted Me Thierry Carrère, adviser to Jean-Michel Baylet. “We participated in the acts of investigation, while we had no such obligation, we found in the file the confirmation of its inconsistency as that of the will to harm, beyond all limits, of our accuser” , he added. “We welcome this classification, which was beyond doubt, with satisfaction”.
The facts, denounced by Nathalie Collin, would have started during a vacation in Greece with her parents in the villa of Jean-Michel Baylet, then would have continued. Her memories are sometimes “lacunary”, she readily admitted in an interview with AFP in 2021, but they are also made up of “precise images of places (Paris, Font-Romeu, Toulouse), acts and smells”. On his denunciation, the Paris prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation for “rape” and “sexual assault” on a minor under the age of 15 on June 9, 2020.
Five hour showdown
After being heard by the police in a free hearing in February 2021, the former minister, aged 75, had been confronted for five hours with his accuser in October at the premises of the Brigade for the protection of minors in Paris. “I come out of it as I came back, free as the air”, declared after this confrontation Jean-Michel Baylet, who has always disputed the facts.
For Nathalie Collin, now 53, this confrontation allowed her to “say everything she needed to tell him (…) and that she retained during these years”, explained Me Zoé Royals. About ten years ago, a former relation of the Baylet family had denounced acts of rape targeting Nathalie Collin in a report to the Montauban prosecutor. Heard, Nathalie Collin had denied. “But it was wrong, I just wasn’t ready,” she said.
Long-time friends, Jean-Michel Baylet and Nathalie Collin have become political rivals and have been waging a virulent war for several years with accusations on both sides. The former president of the Radical Left Party (1996-2016) and former senator of Tarn-et-Garonne participated four times in left-wing governments under the presidency of François Mitterrand then François Hollande, for which he was Minister of Territorial Planning, Rurality and Territorial Communities.
Jean-Michel Baylet is also one of the owners and the president of the press group The Midi Dispatch, and is vice-president of the Alliance of the press of general information. Current mayor of Valence-d’Agen (Tarn-et-Garonne), he was re-elected to the departmental council of Tarn-et-Garonne but decided to leave the presidency of the department.