A tennis coach appeared in court near Paris on Wednesday charged (1) with the rape and sexual assault of former pupils, including a girl who was twelve at the time of the alleged incidents, reports RFI.
The 48 year old man was arrested on Monday at the tennis club where he was employed in the comfortable Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.
Between 1999 and 2001, while working at a different club, in Sarcelles, just north of Paris, he is alleged to have raped and sexually assaulted a girl who was twelve when the first alleged incidents took place.
He is also accused of raping and sexually assaulting two seventeen year old girls between 2001 and 2005.
The girls’ lawyers say they kept silent about the matter for years because they felt that they were under his control.
In February, one of the girls filed a police complaint and when the police enquiry was underway the two other girls came forward.
The coach admits having had sexual relations in some cases but maintains that there was no coercion and says that now he realises that such conduct was not “normal”.
Read more of this report from RFI.
1. Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mise en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being 'charged'. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.