“Very quickly, it drifted into sex”: three young gays, former Refuge, testify

A week after Nicolas Noguier was indicted for rape and sexual assault, three former Refuges decided to speak to the press. They want to encourage other victims to testify. A dilemma “when you know how much the Refuge helps lots of young people”.

With their three voices, they say it again and again: Benjamin, Lilio and Yohann want “free speech”. All are former young people from the Refuge, this foundation which offers temporary accommodation and social support to young LGBT people, who are now bound by their legal process. As the legal proceedings finally move forward, they want to encourage other victims of harassment or sexual violence to testify or file a complaint in turn. If they are now talking about their story, it is also because they say to themselves that, perhaps, someone will recognize themselves in their words. “It is our way of shouting to all the people who are still in silence that we believe them”, promises Benjamin.

On January 21, Nicolas Noguier was indicted for rape and sexual assault, and Frédéric Gal for two acts of sexual harassment. The duo, formerly at the head of the Refuge, had previously been indicted for “hidden work and moral harassment of several employees and volunteers of the Refuge”. In a press release, the public prosecutor of Montpellier specifies that the two implicated “contested all of the facts of a sexual nature with which they are accused and produced evidence in support of their statements. They also contested the facts of concealed work and moral harassment.. Contacted by Release, Me Stéphane Fernandez, Nicolas Noguier’s lawyer, confirms and specifies that he has appealed the indictment order. A complaint for “slanderous denunciation” was also filed against Lilio Padovano.

After eighteen years at the head of the Refuge, the two men resigned in February 2021, shortly after the publication in Mediapart of a damning investigation into their internal management, combining accusations of “management by terror”, “toxic atmosphere” and “moral harassment”. The testimonies then followed one another, going as far as accusations of sexual violence. Like the story published by Stubborn in April 2021, in which a former youth hosted by the Refuge claims to have been raped by Nicolas Noguier.

“It goes up along my thigh”

In a café in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, Release met Benjamin Ledig, Lilio Padovano and Yohann Allemand on January 26. They learned of the indictment of the two former leaders of the Refuge in a press article a few days earlier. Electroshock. After having spent so many months without news of this legal procedure in which he is engaged, Lilio Padovano had almost lost hope.

Hands around a cup of tea, he unpacks everything. In the spring of 2019, when his parents kicked him out, he found a place to stay at the Refuge in Montpellier. It was there that he met Nicolas Noguier. He begins by explaining “which was a trigger for [lui]», during a permanence in the premises of the Refuge: the one who was then president of the foundation “took one of [s]friends in his arms and made him sit on his lap. When Nicolas got up, he had an erection. It was disgusting.”

Shortly after, the young man would have found himself alone in the car with Nicolas Noguier. The first is 18 years old, the second about forty years old. Launched on the highway, “Nicolas is starting to ask me questions about my sexuality, my type of guy…” By imitating the gesture he describes, Lilio Padovano continues: “There, Nicolas Noguier puts his hand on my knee and, little by little, goes up my thigh until his fingers touch my genitals.” At the time, he confided in a social worker, who “do nothing”. But dare not turn to anyone else. He knows it only too well: Nicolas Noguier is “loved and respected by everyone in Montpellier”. It was at the start of 2021 that he broke his silence, when the Association for the Defense of the Refuge’s Alumni (Adar) contacted him. For “help the future young people of the foundation”, Lilio Padovano files a complaint for sexual assault on his counsel.

‘Fired for no reason’

Sitting opposite him on a velvet sofa, brown cap screwed on his head, Yohann Allemand nods. He himself has “issued the alert” and struggles to collect testimonies from as many victims as possible. Like many young LGBT people, he too found himself on the street, his mother kicking him out when she learned he was gay. For him, getting involved in the Refuge is therefore obvious. In 2019, based in Poitiers, he created a departmental branch in his city. Very quickly, the dysfunctions add up. No training for volunteers, “no management support” in the event of a problem… But above all, the most unbearable: “Many young people who needed accommodation were being fired for no reason.”

Yet another disagreement with Nicolas Noguier pushes him to slam the door. On September 14, 2020, Yohann Allemand then published an angry tweet: “Extremely proud to announce my resignation as Relay correspondent for #lerefuge. I would explain more at length on why but I have things to say. #homophobia #lgbt #transphobia”. In illustration, a photo of his flocked t-shirt with the foundation’s logo, stuffed in a trash can. “I did not expect such a buzz”, he admits with hindsight. Because in the wake of this publication, he receives dozens and dozens of testimonies going in the same direction as his. But also stories of sexual violence of which Nicolas Noguier would be the author. Yohann then creates the Adar and sets out to find as many victims as possible to help them in their legal proceedings. “We are at about twenty complaints”, he calculates.

“It was important”

Among the elders of the Refuge that Yohann Allemand supports, Benjamin Ledig, 18 years old. Legs crossed, this curly blonde with a fine face expresses himself in snippets. He contacted the foundation at the beginning of 2020, asking for help after being raped by his boyfriend. Nicolas Noguier would then have started to send him messages “increasingly intimate”. On his phone, he scrolls through the multitude of text messages he has never deleted: hearts, “I love you very much” or “I miss you”… The “faintness” explodes while participating in “Coronalives” during the first lockdown. Videoconference discussions proposed by Nicolas Noguier, in his presence and that of other members of the foundation, including Frédéric Gal. “Very quickly, it drifted on the subject of sex. They asked me the size of my penis, if I ejaculated more or less, who attracted me the most between them…”

He’s only 16, doesn’t realize “Which is normal or not, I couldn’t stop it all”. Like Lilio Padovano, and like what happens in many other cases of sexist and sexual violence, Benjamin Ledig then decides to “bury everything”. To protect yourself, try to forget.

It was only a year later, reading articles in the press, that Benjamin understood that he was not “not alone” and filed a complaint. A complicated decision, because all three say it: difficult to tell all that “when you know how much the Refuge helps lots of young people”, slides Lilio. They also constantly remind us: the foundation is essential. Those they point the finger at are Nicolas Noguier and Frédéric Gal. Since their indictment, new testimonies fill the mailbox of the Adar. Yohann even quit his job to “devoting oneself fully to this cause”. How else? Tears in the corners of his eyes, he affirms it in a voice drowned in emotion: “We won’t give up.”