A figure in kayaking in France, Jean-Yves Prigent, already sentenced this summer to prison for sexual assault on adolescents, was placed in police custody on Tuesday in an investigation into rape, assault and sexual harassment, a- we learned on Wednesday from the prosecution.
Three new victims, minors
The Breton coach, aged 70, is accused by three new minor victims. “These are two young men concerning rape and sexual assault and a young woman concerning acts of sexual harassment,” said the public prosecutor of Rennes, Frédéric Teillet, confirming information from the daily newspapers. The Parisian et West France.
Former canoe-kayak world champion and ex-national coach in this discipline, Jean-Yves Prigent is suspected of having committed sexual assault on a minor in Rennes and Cesson-Sévigné (Ille-et-Vilaine), a neighboring town , between 2005 and 2008, according to the regional daily. It is in these two municipalities that he is also accused of sexual harassment, between 2013 and 2018, of a young woman.
Several rapes of a teenager in 2023 and 2024
Jean-Yves Prigent is finally suspected of several rapes of a teenager, committed during sporting trips between 2023 and 2024 in Rennes, Vaires (Seine-et-Marne), Bourg-Saint-Maurice (Savoie) and Prague (Czech Republic). ).
An influential trainer in the small world of French kayaking, the septuagenarian was sentenced in July to four years in prison, including one year with an electronic bracelet and three years with probation, for two sexual assaults on minors over fifteen years old. The coach is also prohibited from carrying out any activity involving contact with minors.
“A trip off the road”, according to the coach
He admitted the facts before the Rennes criminal court, admitting to having “caressed the genitals” of two teenagers whom he was training and who were sleeping, at his invitation, on the same berth as him in his camper van.
“I have regrets and remorse on a daily basis,” repeated during the hearing the defendant, father of Camille Prigent, vice-world and European kayak-cross champion and who had defended the colors of France at the Olympic Games this summer. The coach did not explain his actions, referring to an “exit from the road”.
The lawyer for the civil parties, Mr.e Thomas Serrand, however, denounced a “well-established process of control”, refuting Jean-Yves Prigent's thesis according to which these sexual assaults were “isolated acts”.
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