The Vatican has announced it has lifted the diplomatic immunity accorded to its special envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, who is accused by four men of sexual agression, notably by a Paris City Hall employee who said he was groped by Ventura during an offfical ceremony, accusations which are currently being investigated by the Paris public prosection services.
Georges Tron, a former French junior minster and Member of Parliament, and mayor of a town near Paris, has been acquitted by a trial jury of charges of raping two women employees of his town hall in sexual assaults abetted by his female deputy, after jurors found no evidence that the plaintifs did not consent to the events.
A woman who formerly worked as a casting director for French filmmaker Luc Besson and who has accused him of sexually assaulting her on several occasions has been questioned by Paris police investigating allegations of sex crimes by the 59-year-old producer and director, Mediapart can reveal. The investigations were launched in May by the Paris prosecution services after Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy accused Besson of raping her in a Paris hotel, which he has firmly denied.
After numerous reports by women on social media of how they fell victim to groping and forced kisses during mass street partying to celebrate France's World Cup victory on Sunday, Paris police authorities have urged victims to file complaints.
An investigation into rape allegations against France's budget and public accounts minister, Gérald Darmanin, who denied them, has been dropped by prosecutors. But a complaint from another woman against the minister is now the subject of a preliminary investigation, amid allegations that as a mayor Darmanin abused his influence to gain sexual favours – claims he denies. The offence of “influence peddling” is often present in financial and fraud cases, but as Marine Turchi and Antton Rouget report, it can also be a suitable charge in cases of alleged “sexual corruption”.
A report published this month by France’s national institute of demographic studies, INED, suggests that one woman in five in the country falls victim every year to incidents of sexual and sexist abuse in public spaces, ranging from assault to harassment, and the most vulnerable are women aged between 20 and 24 who live in the Paris region. Louise Fessard reports.
Official figures show the number of complaints lodged alleging sexual assault and harassment have jumped by almost a third year-on-year in France in the wake of widely reported allegations of sex crimes in the worlds of cinema, politics and the media, notably the accusations levelled at Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.
The 54-year-old kissed the young woman on the breast after she refused he embrace her, prompting calls for his prosecution amid a series of recent damning revelations of sexual assault and harassment by both TV personalities and politicians in France.
Mediapart and French radio station France Inter have received five new accounts of lewd behaviour, including sexual assault and harassment, allegedly perpetrated by French MP Denis Baupin, husband of French housing minister Emmanuelle Cosse. Baupin was forced to stand down as speaker of the French parliament earlier this month after Mediapart published interviews with eight women, including an MP and Green party spokeswomen, who said they had suffered assault and harassment by him. The new accounts given here cover a 16-year period during which Baupin was deputy-mayor of Paris and a leading official with the French green party. Lénaïg Bredoux reports.
