This is the culmination of several complaints filed against Lionel Sanchez, 49 years old. Two complaints which led the Rouen public prosecutor’s office to open a judicial investigation to rape of minors aged 15, according to our information. The first dates from 2022. Maxime, 43 years old today, accuses Lionel Sanchez of having imposed mutual caresses, masturbations and blowjobs during academic support sessions at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-la-Salle college in Rouen where he was employed as a supervisor. Maxime was 12 years old, Lionel Sanchez was 18. A trauma that Maxime had already told France Bleu Normandie, under the pseudonym Julien.
Sentenced to two years in prison, suspended in 2022
This young banker in Switzerland kept the secret for a long time, before deciding to file a complaint following the conviction of Lionel Sanchez to a two-year suspended prison sentence, for sexual assault on an 8-year-old child, the son of a employee of France Bleu Normandie where he worked as a radio host, at the end of the 90s. He left France Bleu in 2018.
Years of physical and psychological suffering
The second complaint was filed in June 2022 by Lionel Sanchez’s own cousin. She is the only woman in this case, who was only a little girl at the time of the events she denounces. Sandra, 41, accuses him of having raped her when she was 6 years old, he was 15. The two cousins stayed that summer with their grandmother in Marseille. “He made me sit next to him, he had a book in his hands and then he started to penetrate me with his fingers and I was stunned” says the young woman. “He told me, it’s a secret between the two of us and if you talk about it, it will go very badly”. Sandra, too, kept this to herself for a long time but her voice chokes when she talks about the years of physical and psychological pain that she subsequently endured. She also decided to file a complaint when she learned that her cousin had been convicted of sexual assault on minors. “I thought I was the only one, but he destroyed childhoods, he’s a predator” assures the young woman.
Confronted with his accusers in police custody
On Wednesday April 24, after several months of investigation and hearings carried out by police officers from the juvenile brigade, Lionel Sanchez was summoned to the Rouen police headquarters and confronted by three of his victims on the second day of his custody. Maxime hoped for a confession, but “he denied everything outright for my part. What I especially expect is for justice to do its job” he confides. Two other people were confronted by the former radio host: a man for whom Lionel Sanchez was the occasional babysitter, and a young man who was 18 years old in 2015 and who accuses him of sexual assault on the sidelines of a professional meeting in Paris, when the former host had been promoted to program director of France Bleu. “When he subscribes to my Twitter account, sends me a message and tells me that my profile interests him for a media column for France Bleu, I am flattered”. The first two meetings in his office and during a lunch went well, the third ended abruptly when Lionel Sanchez slipped his hand into his underwear after having lured him to his house on the pretext of dropping off his swimming pool bag .
Seven complaints in the investigating judge’s file
For him, the facts are prescribed, “but they shed light on the testimonies of the other plaintiffs” plead Laura Kalfon, the lawyer for the young man and Maxime. In addition, three other complaints were attached to the file, including two dating from 2006 which had been closed without further action due to lack of sufficient evidence. Indicted on Friday, the man was placed under judicial supervision. The investigation will now continue under the direction of an investigating judge. Contacted by France Bleu, Lionel Sanchez’s lawyer, did not wish to comment. At this point, he remains presumed innocent.
