The body of Benjamin Dessange was discovered at his home in Corsica on Tuesday November 5. Aged 57, he was soon to be tried for aggravated sexual harassment.
Benjamin Dessange, youngest son of the famous hairdresser Jacques Dessange, who died in 2020, was found dead on Tuesday November 5 at his home in Porto-Vecchio, Corsica. According to our information, the autopsy confirmed the theory of suicide while an investigation to “search for the causes of death” had been opened by the Ajaccio public prosecutor's office.
“The death occurred the day before yesterday, on November 5,” indicated the Dessange International group, which made it clear that Benjamin Dessange “had left the company in 2018 and was no longer part of it, either as a shareholder or as a employee”. The group had no further comment.
Soon to be tried for sexual harassment
Benjamin Dessange, 57, was soon to be tried at the Paris court for aggravated sexual harassment. In 2014, then in 2015, a former employee of the Dessange group, Annabel Talon, filed a complaint against the heir of the hairdresser to the stars.
She accused him of malicious phone calls, intentional violence and sexual harassment, saying that from 2011, the man who became president of Dessange International had adopted “an inappropriate attitude” towards her. And this for two years, until she left the group as part of a conventional breakup.
Benjamin Dessange was indicted in October 2022. On April 8, an investigating judge ordered a trial before the criminal court, based in particular on around fifty SMS messages sent to him by the heir of the group, sometimes of a sexual nature, and testimonies from personal and professional entourage reporting inappropriate behavior towards her.
“We dispute the facts. This person has been pursuing Benjamin Dessange with his hatred for fifteen years,” his lawyer, Me Richard Koplewicz, declared in April.
Benjamin Dessange has always denied
The judge retained the aggravating circumstance of abuse of authority, due to the hierarchical relationship and the right of oversight that Benjamin Dessange had over the complainant's work. Summoned in 2018, the suspect denied the facts and claimed that he had a consensual sexual relationship with the complainant, which the latter disputes.
“She had a lot of contact with my father and my father created a vendetta,” Benjamin Dessange, who had notoriously difficult relations with his father since 2008, declared during his interrogation in 2022.
An unsubstantiated conspiracy theory, according to the conclusions of the investigating magistrate.
