Tuesday, May 24, Jean-Luc Lahaye is released under judicial supervision after nearly seven months of detention. He had been indicted for rape and sexual assault on minors last November after the denunciations of two young girls, born in 1998 and 2000. The singer denies and evokes consensual relations.
W9 devotes a new documentary to the case, this Wednesday evening, and looks back on the artist’s career, from his childhood at the DASS to his revelation to the general public, to his setbacks with the justice system.
Unpublished documents
The story of Jean-Luc Lahaye is told by those closest to him: his press officer, Fabien Lecoeuvre, his friends, Albert Kassabi and Peter Savelli, but also the presenter Danièle Gilbert, who rubbed shoulders with him at the start of his glory.
W9 also obtained unpublished images: those of the first meeting between “Emeline”*, one of the accusers, and Jean-Luc Lahaye. The behavior of the singer, who asks him for a kiss several times, immediately raises questions. Just like his statements in his concerts, where he used to call on young girls to dance alongside him on the stage: “At first you dance normally, after you undress a little, you’ll see it’s nice as a game”, he declares in particular, as amateur images show.
The channel was also able to consult the exchanges of messages between Jean-Luc Lahaye and “Roxanne” *, the other girl who accuses him. These are eloquent: “Show yourself naked”, “send me photos before 11 p.m., but HOT the photos” urges the singer to the then 14-year-old girl.
A documentary that questions
But certain passages of the documentary broadcast this evening question, while the legal case is still in progress. It emphasizes the power of seduction of Jean-Luc Lahaye. “He had a magnetism on the female audience that I have rarely seen,” explains Fabien Lecoeuvre, the singer’s press officer. “Jean-Luc Lahaye he likes women. You are a star, you did a concert, you go back to the hotel and then there are plenty of women waiting (…) If you like women, well indeed, it’s easy, ”also says journalist Laurent Argelier. We also mention the “other ambiguous texts” of the singers of the time and Jean-Luc Lahaye as an artist of “another generation”, the one before #Metoo, whose codes he kept.
The documentary notably calls into question the word of “Roxanne”*, one of the complainants, who in a first case indicated that she had been harassed by Jean-Luc Lahaye before accusing him of rape. “This girl has cheeks, according to your moods you will say that harassment has become rape”, judge Albert Kassabi, friend of Jean-Luc Lahaye. “Why do you want him to rape girls when he can have whoever he wants. If they did, it’s because they wanted to, “says a fan of the singer who wants” him to go out because he does not deserve “what is happening to him. “My feeling is that his place is not in prison”, also considers Albert Kassabi.
On the other hand, we welcome the presence of Martine Brousse, who represents the association La Voix de l’Enfant, a civil party in the case, and that of Maître Olivier Baratelli, lawyer for the children’s foundation, also civil party, which allow to balance the word.
“Jean-Luc Lahaye, the fall of an idol. What really happened?”, Wednesday June 1 at 9:05 p.m. on W9, presented by Nathalie Renoux.
*Names have been changed.