More than 40 women testified in court. They accuse Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of rape and sexual assault.
Published on 07/11/2024 14:29
Reading time: 2min
“We did not imagine for a moment that there could be such crimes committed at TF1.” Robert Namias, former director of the channel, was questioned on Thursday, November 7, by the commission of inquiry into sexual violence in cinema and audiovisual on the Patrick Poivre d’Arvor affair. The latter is indicted for rape, and accused by numerous women, notably when he was a star presenter on TF1 (1996-2007). The group’s management has “obviously missed something”and admis Robert Namias.
“It’s a huge wound that opened in November 2021” during the revelations on this file, he underlined, while certain victims believe that the management of TF1 protected its former star. “The context was not the same”also tried to justify the journalist and writer, who spoke under oath.
In total, more than 40 women testified in court against the former news presenter of Antenne 2 then TF1, aged 77, who contests the accusations of rape and sexual assault. A first judicial investigation was opened in 2021 in Nanterre after a complaint with the constitution of a civil party from the author Florence Porcel, who claims that PPDA raped her twice. MP Estelle Youssouffa (Liot group), herself a former journalist at LCI, a channel of the same group, affirmed that “harassment [PPDA] was perfectly known”.
Il “presented the newspaper for twenty years” et “we’re talking about 70-80” women publicly accusing him, including few of the channel’s collaborators and not always for attacks in his office but outside, noted Robert Namias. “I was never informed of anything” et “if we had the slightest conviction, he should have left the company immediately”insisted the former manager. Asked about a visit by the police to the presenter’s office in the TF1 tower after a rape complaint filed in June 2005 and closed shortly after, Robert Namias said he was not aware of it. “There is no record of this visit.”
