“Too long I haven’t said anything”: to Mediapart four women accuse Nicolas Bedos of “rape” and “sexual assault”

In a new survey released on July 18, 2023, Mediapart collected the testimonies of four women who accuse the director Nicolas Bedos of ” rape ” AND ” sexual assault “.

According to media information, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation on July 5 following several complaints against the director: ” Entrusted to 1^um District Judicial Police (DPJ), this investigation covers, from the same source, three cases: one for “rape and sexual assault”, the other two for “sexual assault” “.

A complaint filed in mid-June as part of another case

In addition to these three proceedings, a complaint was filed in mid-June by a 25-year-old woman accusing Nicolas Bedos of touching her clothes in a Parisian nightclub earlier this month. The director will be tried in the context of this case in early 2024 before the criminal court of Paris.

Nicolas Bedos, who declined to comment Mediapartseems to choose a scabrous line of defense” the excuse » drunkenness: a AFP extensionon June 22, the director’s attorney indicated that his client had ” no memory” of such a gesture, which had no “could have only been accidental under the influence of intoxication”. A well-established modus operandi, according to the testimonies gathered by our colleagues:

For his part, the director has often blamed his excesses on his own “problems with alcohol” (…) This is also the defensive line he has adopted against the complaint for “sexual assault” filed in June – in which he benefits from the presumption of innocence. In judicial documents, the state of intoxication is not an extenuating circumstance, but an aggravating circumstance.

Mediapart, “Nicolas Bedos in the crosshairs of an investigation into “rape” and “sexual assault””. July 18, 2023.

Complaints to justice and a reputation that precedes it

Among the four people who testified in the columns of Mediapart, two said they sent complaints to the courts in late June. The disputed facts range from 1999 to 2017.

One of the testimonies tells of having met the director when she was a waitress and was starting her artistic career. After an evening where she would accompany him, he allegedly raped her at her home after preventing her from leaving with various intimidation tactics. Tell in the columns of Mediapart his ” state of terror, unable to articulate a word “. Two other testimonies tell of having met the director in a nightclub, while the third was a longtime friend.

The four women denounce the director’s impunity, accused of abusing his position of power. One of them, for example, tells this sentence that marked her, when Nicolas Bedos became more and more insistent in the place where they were: ” Don’t you know who I am? My father is Guy Bedos “. An impunity linked to his status that would have allowed him to sail peacefully in an environment where silence is a must.

Our sisters from Mediapart are formal: During our investigation, several people assured us that Nicolas Bedos allegedly had a reputation in the film world for having “problematic behavior” towards women. “. Which hasn’t stopped him from making big talks like this platform in the huffpost where he declares, not without irony: A free world is this world in which women should be able to refuse any serious proposal without affecting their professional career. “.

A text written in 2017, the year in which he would have attacked his friend, who would have tried to kiss by force. Hypocrisy at its peak.

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