Justice decided to resume the case. A new investigation was opened and entrusted to an examining magistrate on Wednesday concerning Patrick Poivre d’Arvor (PPDA), the former star of TF1’s television news being accused of rape by the writer Florence Porcel, announced the prosecution of Nanterre to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Friday, December 17, confirming a information from TF1-LCI.
Writer and journalist Florence Porcel, 38, accuses PPDA of forcing her to have sex in 2004 and fellatio in 2009. Her first complaint against PPDA, which denied the accusations, was filed in February and then dismissed. at the end of June by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office to “Prescription” and “Insufficient evidence”. It is on these facts of 2009 classified for “Insufficient evidence” that the investigators will investigate again, the prosecution told AFP.
After a classification without continuation of a preliminary investigation by magistrates of the public prosecutor’s office, a plaintiff can constitute a civil party in order to cause the referral to a judge, so that an investigation is again opened. This is what Florence Porcel did at the end of November, thus triggering the opening of a judicial investigation.
The Nanterre prosecutor’s office also opened a second investigation against Patrick Poivre d’Arvor on Thursday; this is carried out by prosecutors. The preliminary investigation follows a complaint filed last week by a woman who accuses the journalist and writer of raping her during the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, when she was 23. Facts that appear to be prescribed. Investigations “Are entrusted to the BRDP, brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person”, specifies LCI.
Twenty-seven charges against PPDA
“My client receives as an expression of consideration this opening of an investigation when the facts are prescribed, proof that her courage was not in vain”, told AFP his lawyer, Laure Heinich. According to a source close to the case, the prosecution opened this preliminary investigation because it is “Important to carry out fact checks before determining whether they are prescribed or not”. According to this source, the “Wave of accusations” targeting Patrick Poivre d’Arvor “Encourage [la justice] to check “ the facts denounced.
According to an AFP count, on Friday, at least 27 women testified to investigators or in the press accusing Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment, including two minors at the time of the facts reproached. Eleven have filed a complaint. A #MeTooMedias association, launched by accusers of PPDA, was created to break the omerta in the French media.