PARIS, June 11 — French pop icon Patrick Bruel was charged with rape and sexual assault yesterday, after nearly two dozen women came forward to make allegations against him, some dating back to the 1990s.
The 67-year-old, a major figure in French popular culture with several top‑selling albums and dozens of film appearances, has denied any wrongdoing.
He is the latest top French celebrity to face investigators in the wake of the #MeToo movement, after film legend Gerard Depardieu was handed a suspended 18-month prison sentence last year for sexually assaulting two women on a film set.
Bruel, a heartthrob whose face was plastered on teen magazines in the early 1990s, has spent 48 hours in custody after being held for questioning on Monday.
A judge in the Paris suburb of Nanterre said Bruel was charged with rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Earlier the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said the charges related to nine victims and involved incidents between 2010 and 2019.
It said that the complaints of another 13 people accusing him of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment from 1992 to 2008 had been added to the file handed over to investigating magistrates, even if they “appeared to be beyond the statute of limitations at this stage”.
Bruel was released under judicial supervision, his lawyer Fanny Colin said, after the judge rejected a request from prosecutors for him to be put in pre-trial detention.
‘Never forced a woman’
Bruel — who in 1998 was briefly a world poker champion — protested his innocence last month, saying in an Instagram post that he had “never forced a woman”.
He then said he would be cancelling all concerts until September.
His lawyers on Monday said in a statement he would answer all questions and “provide all the elements necessary to demonstrate his innocence”.
Bruel’s accusers include Daniela Elstner, the current director of Unifrance, a company promoting French cinema abroad.
In March, she formally accused him of attempted rape during a film festival in Mexico when she was a 26-year-old intern at Unifrance in 1997.
“This is a real first legal victory for the victims,” her lawyer Jade Dousselin told AFP after the prosecutors demanded charges.
Several new allegations against the star have been reported since Monday.
Lawyer Myriam Guedj Benayoun on Tuesday said a new complaint would soon be filed against the singer for the alleged attempted rape of a 19-year-old at his home in 2000.
Another lawyer, Corinne Herrmann, has said two women filed rape complaints against him on May 27 and June 3.
Investigative news outlet Mediapart said the women were a former beauty queen who accuses Bruel of raping her in 2008 and a physiotherapist who alleged he committed rape in 2000.
‘Outrageous’
His other accusers include French television presenter Flavie Flament, who last month accused him of raping her in 1991 when she was a minor.
She told AFP on Monday that her case was not one being looked into by investigators this week, but she criticised what she described as a slow judicial system.
“Three weeks after my complaint was made public, Patrick Bruel is in police custody,” she told AFP on Monday.
“What is truly outrageous is that before me, there were women who for months — for years — tried to make themselves heard, and it took the media coverage of my complaint for things to move forward,” she added.
At the height of his popularity, a period dubbed “Bruelmania” in French pop culture, teenagers saw in the singer a masculine ideal, with enthralled fans gathering outside places he was thought to be in Paris.
Bruel seemed to enjoy his image, in 2000 saying on television: “I’m easy to seduce, but not easy to keep.” — AFP
Aussie~mobs posted a photo:
Regimental number - 2392
Place of birth - Colac, Victoria
School - Yalloak State School, Colac, Victoria
Religion - Roman Catholic
Occupation - Labourer
Address - Henty PO, Victoria
Marital status - Single
Age at embarkation - 24
Next of kin - Father, D Hurley, Henby PO, Victoria
Enlistment date - 17 March 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll - 28 May 1915
Rank on enlistment - Private
Unit name - 5th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number - 23/22/2
Embarkation details - Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A64 Demosthenes on 16 July 1915
Rank from Nominal Roll - Sergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll - 46th Battalion
Fate - Died of wounds 13 July 1918
Place of death or wounding - France
Age at death - 27
Place of burial - Crouy British Cemetery (Plot IV, Row A, Grave No. 6), Crouy-Sur-Somme, France
Panel number, Roll of Honour,
Australian War Memorial - 142
Miscellaneous information from
cemetery records - Parents: Denis and Mary HURLEY,enty, Victoria. Native of Colac, Victoria
Family/military connections - Brothers: 249 Driver Thomas Joseph HURLEY, 2nd Pioneer Bn, died of wounds, 12 January 1917; 3869 Pte Denis HURLEY, 46th Bn, killed in action, 13 August 1916.
Cyber agency says BlackCore targeted John Swinney, as well as interfering in New York and French elections
France’s cybersecurity agency has accused the Israeli tech company BlackCore of interfering in the Scottish elections earlier this year by targeting the first minister, John Swinney.
The disinformation detection agency Viginum said BlackCore had this year used proxy social media accounts to target Swinney, the Scottish National party, and the Scottish government on four occasions.
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© Photograph: David Young/PA
© Photograph: David Young/PA
© Photograph: David Young/PA
Lawyers for Nick Ut have filed a detailed legal submission to a court in France, which will hear a criminal defamation case brought against Netflix and the VII Foundation over claims made in The Stringer documentary.
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