Death of Benjamin Dessange, son of hairdresser Jacques Dessange, accused of aggravated sexual harassment

Benjamin Dessange, youngest son of the world-famous French hairdresser Jacques Dessange, who died in 2020, and who was to be tried in Paris for aggravated sexual harassment, died at the age of 57, according to consistent sources. The information of his disappearance, transmitted to AFP by a source close to the matter, was confirmed Thursday by the Dessange International group. “The death occurred the day before yesterday, the 5th” November, indicated the group, which made it clear that Benjamin Dessange “had left the company in 2018 and was no longer part of it, neither as a shareholder nor as an employee”. Dessange International made no further comment.

A former employee of the Dessange group, Annabel Talon, filed a complaint against the heir to the hairdresser to the stars, in 2014, then in 2015. She accused him of malicious telephone calls, intentional violence and sexual harassment, saying that from of 2011, the one who had become president of Dessange International had adopted “an inappropriate attitude” towards him. And this for two years, until she left the group as part of a conventional breakup.

Inappropriate behavior and abuse of authority

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 Benjamin Dessange, sometimes of a nature sexual, 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.”declared his lawyer, Me Richard Koplewicz, in April, contacted by AFP.

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 person concerned 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”declared during his interrogation in 2022 Benjamin Dessange, who had had notoriously difficult relations with his father since 2008. An unsubstantiated conspiracy theory, according to the conclusions of the investigating magistrate.