The Paris prosecutor’s office requested Thursday evening an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros against the host Stéphane Plaza, tried before the criminal court for violence against two former companions. “We must remember today who is the victim and who is the aggressor,” justified the prosecutor in requesting this sentence, “and not make the couple a lawless zone. Stéphane Plaza made a choice: that of violence to impose his will within the couple.”
Tried in Paris for violence against two former companions, the famous real estate agent Stéphane Plaza refuted the accusations at the bar, citing in particular “an unfortunate incident”. The television presenter, dressed in a midnight blue suit and a white T-shirt, is appearing in particular for “habitual physical and/or psychological violence by a partner” between 2018 and 2022 against a former partner, Amandine. He faces ten years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros.
During the investigation, Amandine recounted having suffered four episodes of violence and humiliation. In the spring of 2022, she describes a scene where Stéphane Plaza twisted the fingers of one hand. An x-ray reveals two dislocations and a bone tear. She also assures that he “strangled” her with his forearm. After this episode, he sent her several messages in a tone that was sometimes defensive, sometimes sorry. “You push me to the limit, and I lose my temper, that’s the reality. The most violent man in the world. I kiss you tenderly,” he wrote to her in particular.
“I don’t see that she’s in pain.”
“With this text, one might think that you admit to having committed violence,” the president pointed out to him during the hearing. “It was taken out of context,” assures Stéphane Plaza. “I take his hands and spread them, but I can’t control my strength because I’m dyspraxic and clumsy […] and I don’t see that she is in pain,” he insists, denying having strangled her.
“There is a force that should not have been, it’s an unfortunate incident,” he insists. “I have injured many people, even on film sets. I myself might have injured myself accidentally.”
“For me, woman is the most beautiful thing”
Among the mistreatment denounced, Amandine described a stay in Morocco, where Stéphane Plaza, her companion and employer, allegedly humiliated her with a Moroccan personality by telling her: “I brought you a woman, I’m not kidding, take it, it’s your gift.” A “joke” is sweeping Stéphane Plaza today. “With hindsight and mentalities that have changed, maybe I wouldn’t do it again.” “I didn’t put her down, I took her everywhere!” “, he continued. “For me, woman is the most beautiful thing.”
“He oscillated: he took care of me, but that could change in 48 hours and everything fell apart,” testified Amandine, who continues to live in “fear”. “Why didn’t you stop this relationship? It lasted five years,” asks the president. “I was in love, I worked for him, we lived in his apartment. And there were better times. So I had a hard time getting out of all that,” she replies.
The host’s lawyers have included intimate videos of Amandine, which she sent to him after their altercations. Proof, according to her defense, that she was not subjected to violence. The defense of Stéphane Plaza is “some revenge porn and it’s illegal,” said Amandine’s lawyer, Me Benjamin Chouai.
“I have six relationships at the same time”
Stéphane Plaza is also on trial for “habitual psychological violence by a partner” against Paola, between 2021 and 2022. She denounces denigrating remarks. Once she records it. “Did you want to trap him?” », asks the president. “I wanted to make his loved ones listen to him. It wasn’t normal, the way he spoke to me. People like Mr. Plaza should not feel all-powerful,” she replies. “It was a game between us! », retorts the defendant, “a bad Vaudeville”.
The discomfort described by Paola is such that she is going to have an operation to enlarge her breasts and hope to please him more. “I didn’t understand that she wasn’t doing well,” said Mr. Plaza, presenting her as crooked, “a princess” who would lie: “She says we see each other four times a week, but I couldn’t, it’s mathematical, I have six relationships at the same time. He also denied biting her twice, as she claimed.
During the investigation, the two complainants were recognized as having total incapacity for work (ITT) of more than eight days for this recurring violence.
A complaint from Plaza dismissed
Three acquaintances, cited by the defense, described Stéphane Plaza in court as “generous”, “calm”. One of them has been in a relationship with him since 2018. “I know he is unfaithful, it can be the subject of an argument but then he is very shifty. It’s me who’s degenerating.” He is “tender”.
The affair began in September 2023, with the publication by Mediapart of the testimonies of three former partners. The prosecution then opened an investigation. For his part, Stéphane Plaza filed a complaint with the prosecution for harassment and cyberharassment, against these women who accuse him of violence. This complaint was dismissed on January 7 for “unknown author”, according to the public prosecutor. But the defense filed another complaint to obtain referral to an investigating judge.
