Former minister Damien Abad, recently indicted for attempted rape in 2010, brushed aside the accusations of rape against him in mid-May in front of the judges, arguing the physical limits imposed by his disability, and denied any chemical submission, reports theFrance Media Agency.
Read also: Rape accusations against Damien Abad: a third woman becomes a civil party
“I have never drugged or raped”
At the beginning of the afternoon of May 16, the former rising star of LR, who had become an ephemeral war catch of the macronie, assured the two Parisian investigating judges that his “innocence [est] total and full”according to elements of his interrogation consulted on Saturday by AFP.
“I have never drugged, raped, attempted to rape, or assaulted a woman.”launches the deputy for Ain (related to Renaissance) at the start of 4:30 hours of questions and answers on his profile and the stories against him from three women: Laëtitia and Chloé, two borrowed first names, and Margaux.
After testimonies in Mediapart, the complaint of the first triggered the legal proceedings. In the turmoil, Damien Abad left the government after a month, at the beginning of July 2022.
According to Laëtitia, he wanted to force her to perform oral sex during an evening at his home in 2010 in Paris.
Surprised by her “considerable strength”Laëtitia says she “debated” and have it ” struck “before escaping when a guest burst in, who recalled to investigators having “opened a door and saw him come out” wife.
Damien Abad contests this version, the compatibility with the configuration of the premises and its capacity to impose such a relationship.
The judges question him: “Given your respective positions, there is no room for problems of interpretation […]. It happened, or it didn’t happen. » “This scene does not exist”replies the accused.
Margaux describes a sexual encounter that was first consensual in Paris in early 2011 and then marked “disrespect, injunction and insistence” with forced anal penetration.
For Damien Abad, ” it’s wrong. I can’t have sex […] without the active participation of the person”, he says.
The short-lived Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Disabled People insists on his illness, arthrogryposis, his disability established at “80% and above” and the “multitude of gestures that[il] born [peut] not to do “, when it comes to dressing, washing, eating… but also sexual relations.
His current partner corroborates his need for help in this matter, but ex-partners temper this.
A specialist in his illness, contacted by the former minister in March, assured that his disability made “unlikely [Damien Abad] can force a woman of normal build and strength to have sexual intercourse without her consent.”
“Blackout”
But the plaintiffs also put forward the hypothesis of recourse to chemical submission.
Laëtitia says she saw ” something “ at the bottom of a glass ” Free “ by Damien Abad. She spat it out.
Chloé recounts having drunk champagne in a Parisian bar with him in 2010, before a “blackout” until the next morning when she woke up, disoriented, by his side.
Damien Abad recounts an evening of chaste seduction ended by mutual agreement at the hotel.
Margaux will discuss the “possibility”as one of her friends believes, that she was ” drugged “ by Damien Abad. “I have never done drugs or put anything in a drink,” he answers.
The deputy contests the accusations of these women who, although “a priori not knowing each other” as the judges point out, “can rewrite or reinterpret”.
To date indicted only for the facts concerning Laëtitia and placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for the two others, Damien Abad assured on May 16 that he believed “that his total innocence will be confirmed” on these accusations “materially and scientifically impossible” according to his lawyers, Mes Jacqueline Laffont and Robin Binsard.
Me Arié Alimi, Chloé’s lawyer, observes a “same modus operandi denounced by several women who do not know each other: chemical submission has become a recurring modality of rape in politics”.
“For seven years, Margaux’s words have been reiterated, precise and sincere,” insisted his lawyer, Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, on Saturday.
“The operating mode that she describes is common to other victims (without them knowing each other): building trust, a context of asymmetry (political hierarchy), champagne (alcohol or drugs) to make them vulnerable, surprising physical strength, exploitation of his disability to manipulate them”, added the lawyer, who indicated that she “ requested the seizure of Damien Abad’s medical file and a medical expertise.”
