The owner of the pornographic site “Jacquie et Michel”, Michel Piron, and four other people were taken into custody on Tuesday morning.
The owner of the pornographic site “Jacquie et Michel”, Michel Piron, and four other people were placed in police custody on Tuesday in an investigation opened in Paris for “rape” and “pimping”, AFP learned from concordant sources.
Mr. Piron and his wife “were placed in police custody this morning as part of a preliminary investigation” opened in July 2020 “for alleged acts of pimping, complicity in rape and complicity in sexual assault between 2009 and 2015 “, announced the lawyer of the Ares group, owner of the site, Me Nicolas Cellupica.
“The person concerned and his wife were arrested and placed in police custody this morning along with three other people,” confirmed the Paris prosecutor’s office, requested by AFP.
Since the opening of the investigation, “Michel Piron has always asked to be heard by the investigators and to answer their questions openly”, indicated Me Cellupica. “He always said on the side of the victims if actresses suffered acts of sexual violence that he was completely unaware of,” added the lawyer. “The group + Jacquie et Michel + has never produced or directed a film and is only a distributor of films made by independent producers”, insisted the council of the group.
“Finally, pornography has never been equated with prostitution: a porn actress is not a prostitute and a director or broadcaster is not a pimp,” said this lawyer. “This file should be the subject of an opening of judicial information at the end of the week”.
In July 2020, the prosecution entrusted this investigation to the Paris judicial police, initiated after a report sent by Dare feminism, the Effronté-es and the movement of the Nest.
These associations relayed the testimonies of several actresses claiming to have been forced into “sexual practices + out of the ordinary and painful +” when they were not consenting.
This report followed the broadcast in February by the Konbini site of a video entitled “the sordid backstage of amateur porn”, in which two women testified to these practices.
In a book-investigation entitled “Judy, Lola, Sofia and me” (Ed. Goutte d’Or, 2018), journalist Robin d’Angelo recounted his infiltration into the amateur porn industry and denounced the recurring absence of consent and non-compliance with labor law. The group, which announced a turnover of 15 million euros in 2016, according to the journalist, based its success on the purchase of amateur videos at low prices in France, before gradually professionalizing its production.
The company founded in 1999 now competes with Dorcel, one of the leaders in the porn industry.