The trial of Tony Peillon, a 29-year-old repeat scammer accused of rape by five women and sexual assault by a sixth, opens in Albi this Friday. He denies the facts.
The Tarn criminal court is considering this Friday, January 24, in Albi, and until January 29, the case of Tony Peillon, a 29-year-old repeat scammer, accused of rape by five women and sexual assault by a sixth.
The quantity of false names he swallowed up, the numerous lives he invented for himself, from fake motorcycle rider to haute couture stylist, quickly earned him the nickname of the “Rocancourt du Tarn” by the local press. “, in reference to Christophe Rocancourt, famous for having scammed French and American stars.
But these years of duplicity caught up with him when one of the victims of his scams, heard by investigators, revealed that he had also raped her. Since then, five other alleged victims of rape or sexual assault have been identified. The acts were allegedly committed between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2021, in Rennes, in Ille-et-Vilaine, in Albi in Tarn and Narbonne in Aude.
These women “were duped by the different stories that Mr. Peillon had invented,” said Quentin Blanchet-Magon, lawyer for two victims. He allegedly stole money from them, and even a dog for one of them. Then, in addition to having scammed them, “took advantage of them”.
Tony Peillon denies the facts
The testimonies of the alleged victims before the investigators suggest very similar situations: the accused would have found a way to sleep with them or in the same room, claiming for example the late hour or even the fact of being homeless, before take action.
“All of them report that they woke up in a daze and discovered that he was carrying out penetration or sexual assault,” describes Me Blanchet Magon. One of the victims indicates having had a non-consensual relationship imposed on them. A month later, another realizes she is pregnant and has to abort.
Faced with suspicions that they may have been drugged, toxicological analyzes did not detect GHB, the “rapist drug”, in their system. Tony Peillon claims to be innocent.
-“He does not deny having known most of the victims, moreover, for the majority, he does not deny the existence of (sexual) relations either, but which are consensual”, affirms one of his two lawyers, Baptiste Bourqueney.
During the investigation, the young man alleged several times that the alleged victims, furious that he had cheated them, had joined forces against him to invent false accusations. An explanation that the investigations were unable to corroborate.
“A predatory character”
Tony Peillon was born in 1996 in Bangkok, Thailand, abandoned at a very young age before being adopted at the age of 3 by a French couple. His adoptive parents divorced when he was around 16 years old. Then he left home at 18 when his girlfriend became pregnant, but she ended up rejecting him. He says he has never seen his son.
A first conviction followed, on September 18, 2014, then seven others until March 2021, for scams and traffic offenses. In February 2022, he returned to Ukraine to, he explains to investigators, set up an advanced medical post from which to launch humanitarian missions. According to Le Parisien, he in reality takes on a new identity as a former special forces officer and defrauds the volunteers he has joined out of 6,000 euros.
He was imprisoned upon his return to France in March of the same year. The psychiatric expert commissioned by the courts detected in him a “predatory character”, as well as a “tendency to abuse seduction, manipulation, even control”.
However, the alleged victims presented “each of their fragilities, a certain immaturity or even a vulnerability”, assures the accusation. Two of them had just suffered romantic breakups, one of whom was taking anxiolytics. According to psychiatric assessments, several showed signs of immaturity, attachment disorder or even a strong feeling of inferiority. Tony Peillon faces up to 15 years of criminal imprisonment.
