Already referred to the criminal court for similar events, the former Canal + star columnist Pierre Menès is the subject of a new investigation for sexual assault after the broadcast of the documentary ‘I’m not a slut, I’m a journalist’ by journalist Marie Portolano.
Detained by the labor inspectorate, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office on Tuesday opened a preliminary investigation into acts of sexual assault and sexual harassment against Mr. Ménès, 58. The investigations are entrusted to the Brigade for the Suppression of Crime against Persons (BRDP), according to the prosecutor.
In her documentary, about sexism in the world of sports journalism and broadcast in the spring of 2021 on Canal +, journalist Marie Portolano accuses her former colleague in particular of several sexual assaults.
An internal investigation was opened as a result of the Canal + channel, accused of having taken from the documentary the most incriminating passages against its star columnist. During this investigation, according to the Les Jours news site, seven people denounced the sports journalist’s actions.
Pierre Ménès and his employer parted ways on good terms. Canal +, after having studied all the elements, including this internal report, had not fired him because of fault. They had reached an amicable agreement, which proves that there is no evidence that allows Pierre Ménès to be held responsible, “his lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh, replied to AFP, adding that his client is” very calm. “
These are the accusations that are poured on him
The latter is accused of having lifted Marie Portolano’s skirt and touched her buttocks in front of the audience of the Canal Football Club program in 2016. He claims not to remember him due to serious health problems. He is also accused of having forcibly kissed two columnists, Isabelle Moreau and Francesca Antoniotti, during television broadcasts.
The Interior Ministry spokeswoman Camille Chaize then recalled that “kissing someone by force or surprise or grabbing their buttocks in front of a television is a sexual assault sanctioned by law.”
Following the results of this internal investigation, the Hauts-de-Seine labor inspectorate (the department where Canal + is based) decided in December to take legal action and therefore opened an investigation. Pierre Ménès left Canal + last summer after these revelations, which led him to present his “most sincere apologies” to his “victims.”
Ménès will also be tried in June 2022 in Paris for another case of sexual assault. At the end of the PSG-Nantes match on November 20, 2021 at the Parc des Princes, a woman reported acts of sexual assault to the police for which Pierre Ménès would be responsible, without filing a complaint.
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation. The defendant, who refutes the facts, had been taken into police custody and at the end of the custody he was issued a summons by the Judicial Police (COPJ) to stand trial on June 8.
Discussion about this post