One year of suspended imprisonment and a three-year ban on working in a profession related to young audiences. Accused of corrupting a minor, choreographer Bruno Vandelli was found guilty and sentenced this Friday, announces BFMTV. The facts alleged date back to 2016 and were judged at the criminal court of Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) on April 17.
Eight years ago, the former judge and choreographer of “Popstar” had come into contact with a 15-year-old dancer during a dance workshop with her ex-husband. Then they got back in touch via social networks. The couple had sent the teenager videos of a sexual nature and had also received some from the young boy.
Bruno Vandelli accused of rape by Yannis Marshall
It was his mother who discovered these exchanges while searching her son’s phone, reports BFMTV. She had “filed a complaint on his behalf”. Bruno Vandelli’s ex-husband, Jessy Bourgeois, also prosecuted for corruption of a minor, was sentenced to eight months suspended and a four-month ban from practicing, reports AFP.
They were jointly ordered to pay 3,500 euros in damages to the young man and 1,500 euros to his mother, who had filed a civil suit.
“Justice has been served […], it is a strong signal for other victims of this type of incident,” reacted Me Kaltoum Gachi, the lawyer for the civil parties. Me Sylvia Stalteri, counsel to Bruno Vandelli, deplored, reports AFP, a judgment “rendered in keeping with the times” where “morality dominated” over the law.
In January 2024, Yannis Marshall, ex-coach of “Star Academy”, accused Bruno Vandelli of having raped him when he was 14 years old. “It has been several years since the events I suffered at the age of 14 have haunted me, destroyed me, and plunged me into real distress,” he confided in a message published on his Instagram account. “The fact that other people have also been victims gives me the strength to lead this fight for justice and the truth, to go to the end, to denounce to the courts the facts of which I was a victim so that no one does not have to endure them,” he continued.
