the essential
In 2005, the judicial police interviewed Patrick Poivre d’Arvor and investigated at TF1 headquarters following a complaint of rape filed against him. These archives challenge the defense of the accused, who maintains that the former presenter had never been targeted by justice before for sexual violence and is now the victim of false accusations.
At the heart of a judicial investigation since 2021 for rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment, the former television presenter Patrick Poivre d’Arvor was the subject of a first preliminary investigation by the judicial police in 2005 following a complaint for rape. Exhumed as part of the investigation opened at the end of 2021 against the accused, the minutes from the time were consulted by Le Monde.
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PPDA case: five new investigations opened for rape following a new complaint against the journalist
On June 16, 2005, a complaint for rape was filed against Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. The events allegedly took place on the evening of March 14, 2005, after the 8 p.m. news on TF1. As part of the preliminary investigation, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor was interviewed in October 2005 by the Hauts-de-Seine judicial police and findings were made by investigators in his office at TF1 headquarters.
Identical operating mode
Consulted by Le Monde, the complaint describes a modus operandi identical to that attested to in the testimony provided by Florence Porcel to the police in 2021. The latter accuses the former presenter of having raped her in 2009 and in 2004, i.e. four months after the alleged facts reported in the 2005 complaint. During the investigation opened in 2021, 23 women testified. In December 2023, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor was indicted for rape in relation to the facts dating from 2009 of which Florence Porcel accuses him. This judicial information has since been extended in February 2024 to two other rapes and a sexual assault denounced by three women. The journalist and writer has always firmly denied the numerous accusations against him.
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Accused of serial sex crimes
19 years old, the 2005 procedure proves that the PPDA affair has more than one aspect and spans several decades. However, the former presenter’s defense is based on the argument that he had never been targeted by the courts before for sexual violence. Still according to the defense, PPDA would have been wrongly accused by a “rejected lover” and the other complainants would have followed in his wake out of a desire for revenge. For their part, the latter accuse him of serial sexual crimes. According to the lawyer for the civil parties, Me Herrmann, the PPDA case dates back well before 2005, “the oldest case” being dated 1985 “and the most recent, for the moment”, from 1997.
