Higher late than by no means. For the reason that motion MeToothe phrases of the victims of sexual violence frees itself. However generally, the information denounced are too previous, within the eyes of the justice system, to be the topic of prosecution. Even when the testimonies collected by investigators are damning for the individuals concerned. We then say that they’re prescribed.
What is going to or not it’s for Patrick Bruel ? The 66-year-old singer and actor is the goal of three complaints filed by ladies who accuse him of sexual assault and rape dedicated between 1997 and 2012.
On March 12, the Paris public prosecutor’s office became aware of a complaint focusing on the artist concerning a “sexual assault prone to have been dedicated a number of a long time in the past”, he signifies to 20 Minutes. The investigations have been entrusted to the first judicial police district. It was filed by the present general director of Unifrance, Daniela Elstner. In keeping with Mediapartthe alleged acts allegedly happened in November 1997 through the French Movie Pageant in Acapulco, Mexico. The complainant, aged 26 on the time of the occasions, accuses him of getting tried to rape her.
“A necessity for liberation”
For the reason that legislation of February 17, 2017, the statute of limitations for one of these crime is twenty years. This assault may due to this fact be prescribed. Daniela Elstner’s method is due to this fact “at the moment much less a need for judicial conviction than a necessity for launch, for her, and for all of the others”, her lawyer, Me Jade Dousselin, defined to AFP. Close to 20 Minutesthe felony lawyer is delighted “with the fast opening of this preliminary investigation”. “We are going to clearly collaborate absolutely with the Paris prosecutor’s workplace to supply all the weather essential to reveal the reality. »
The prosecution has chosen to open an investigation, even when the information on this case appear at first look prescribed. “Up to now, when complainants filed complaints for previous information, the general public prosecutor’s workplace dismissed them mechanically. However now, the victims and people accused are heard anyway. This response could be helpful for the sufferer to rebuild themselves,” emphasizes 20 Minutes Ludovic Friat, president of the Union Syndicale des Magistrates (USM).
Patrick Bruel can be the goal of an investigation for rape carried out by the Saint-Malo public prosecutor’s workplace, the latter confirms to us. It was opened after the submitting of a grievance on September 30, 2024. A lady accuses him of getting abused her in October 2012 on the sidelines of the Dinard British Movie Pageant, the place the actor and singer chaired the jury. And on this case, the information won’t be prescribed till 2032.
Seriality of the information?
The artist can be targeted by a complaint filed in Belgium “within the judicial district of Mons” in 2026, tells us the prosecution of the King’s prosecutor of the Brussels public prosecutor’s workplace. “The investigation is ongoing and no data will likely be communicated with a view to protect the secrecy which should connect to any investigation,” he specifies.
These accusations come from Karine Viseur, a Belgian press officer who spent a day alongside Patrick Bruel as a part of her work in 2010. An episode that she lately recounted to RTL.
In Belgium, the statute of limitations for an grownup sufferer of sexual assault is ten years from the occasions. It due to this fact appears right here too that there’s a statute of limitations, and the investigating decide will in all probability order the termination of the general public motion.
Nonetheless, the singer’s authorized sky may nonetheless darken. Because other women have spoken lately within the journal Elle to denounce sexual assaults that he allegedly made them undergo. And if justice established the serial nature of the factsthis might interrupt the prescription of those that are the oldest.
