A regional technical advisor to the Hauts-de-France Tennis League has been under investigation since last September. The complainant revealed the affair in March 2024, twenty years after the facts. She was then 13 years old.
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A 54-year-old man, regional technical advisor for the Hauts-de-France Tennis League, was indicted for a case of rape of a 15-year-old minor by the Paris prosecutor’s office. The events took place in 2004. The complainant was then 13 years old. Part of the events allegedly happened in Paris while the man was affiliated with the Languedoc-Roussillon Tennis League. The minor office (OFMIN) is in charge of the investigations according to information from BFM, which revealed the case.
Since 2008, four years after the alleged events, the man held the position of regional technical advisor for the Hauts-de-France league, his region of origin. A function mainly devoted to administrative tasks or training for coaches, according to the president of the league Patrice Brulez, who indicates that he had little contact with the young people made redundant in his new functions. He would, for example, never have been entered into competitions.
“He did not supervise trips to tournaments with the young people, that was not his role or his position. He never made a single trip with the teams.”
President of the Hauts-de-France Tennis League
Since his arrest and indictment on September 20, the man has been subject to a temporary ban on working imposed by his employer, the DRAJES (Regional Academic Directorate for Youth and Sports).). But he was not fired.
The president of the Hauts-de-France League insists: “We must respect the presumption of innocence. I, as president, apply the precautionary principle.” Colleagues have been warned, the parents of young people licensed to the Hauts-de-France league are in the process of being notified.
Patrice Brulez specifies that no member of the northern league was interviewed by the police in this case, since it dates from before the arrival of the suspect in the region. “And then we never had a problem with him, not a report, nor a suspicion, nor an alert” adds Patrice Brulez, who says he is surprised.
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