Radio host Sébastien Cauet was indicted on Friday May 24 for rape and sexual assault on four women, three of whom were teenagers at the time of the alleged events, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced to Agence France-Presse.
The former presenter, who disputes the accusations, was placed under judicial supervision, “with in particular the obligation to pay a deposit of 100,000 euros” and of “follow care”said the public prosecutor.
His judicial review also implies that he “points regularly” at the police station, that he does not enter ” in touch (…) with the people who filed a complaint or testified” and that he does not exercise “certain activities to avoid the repetition of facts”.
When asked, his lawyers, Mᵉˢ Xavier Autain and Simon Clémenceau, did not wish to react.
Mr. Cauet, 52, a well-known figure on the radio for thirty years, was the star host of NRJ where he stood out with his trashy outings on the microphone, until his withdrawal from the air at the end of November, in the wake of the first accusations of rape.
Aggravating circumstance
Summoned by investigators on Wednesday, he was placed in police custody for two days at the minor protection brigade. As requested by the Paris prosecutor’s office, the two investigating judges indicted him by retaining the aggravating circumstance of being a minor over 15 years old for three of the four victims identified.
Mr. Cauet is suspected of having raped a 16-year-old girl in November 2014 in Geneva. The host is also accused of having raped another young girl, aged 15, in December 1997 in Paris. And of having sexually assaulted a third 17-year-old girl in December 2012. Mr. Cauet is also accused of the rape of an adult, born in October 1973. It was allegedly committed in 2011 in Paris.
Other women have accused the host of sexual violence. These facts “are not part of the referral to the investigating judge, due to their prescription”explained the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Mr. Cauet says he is a victim of cyber-harassment
Before being presented to an investigating judge, Mr. Cauet sent a press release from his lawyers to the media on Thursday, calling on them to ” restraint “. “The time for justice is not the time for the media”argued Mᵉˢ Xavier Autain and Simon Clémenceau.
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The latter also wanted to emphasize that their client had gone “freely” with the investigators, “to be able to answer point by point, all the questions asked”. In this case, Mr. Cauet claims to be the victim of cyber-harassment, slanderous denunciation and attempted extortion. He filed a complaint, leading to the opening of two preliminary investigations in Nanterre, for which he was heard at the end of 2023.
But for the person concerned, these investigations do not “the subject of diligent treatment by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office”. He still claims to suffer the offenses denounced.
The case began in November, when a first woman filed a complaint against Mr. Cauet. NRJ immediately announced the “temporary withdrawal” of its presenter, while his presence on the air constituted 44% of the daily radio audience.
The weekly show “C’Cauet” since 2010 (with an interruption in 2017-2018) thus ended. And, unable to return, Mr. Cauet then demanded compensation. But the Paris commercial court rejected it at the beginning of the month.
