Host Flavie Flament announced on Friday that she was filing a complaint for rape against Patrick Bruel, who allegedly abused her when she was a teenager, but the singer and actor assured that he had not “imposed any sexual relations” on her.
“10 years after Consolation, I have a new meeting with my past. And a man who stole my adolescence. I am filing a complaint against Patrick Bruel for theft,” indicates Flavie Flament, 51, in a message posted on the social network Instagram.
“So that the truth comes out, so that justice is done, so that people stop looking away, I add my voice to those of other women who are speaking out in France, Belgium and Canada. I now expect Justice to hear our Word,” she adds.
According to BFMTV, confirming information from Mediapart, the complaint was filed and it denounces facts which date back to 1991, when Flavie Flament was 16 years old. “She indicates, in her complaint, that after a shooting in 1991, she went to the Parisian home of Patrick Bruel, had a blackout and woke up while the singer was putting his pants back on his bed,” write our colleagues.
“No forced sexual relations”
Questioned by AFP, Patrick Bruel’s lawyers immediately denied any rape. Their client assures that he “never drugged Flavie Flament, and did not impose any sexual relations” on her, report Mes Christophe Ingrain and Céline Lasek.
“Patrick Bruel met Flavie Flament in the 90s, they had an episodic relationship at the time. Their exchanges have always been friendly ever since,” they add.
“They have crossed paths several times over the years, during television shows in particular, but also during private moments including on vacation. Flavie Flament also invited him to several shows that she presented, a reality perfectly contradictory with his story today,” they continue.
Already two complaints in France
Patrick Bruel, 67, is currently playing a play in Paris, “Second Part” by Samuel Benchetrit, and is due to begin a tour which will take him to numerous French cities, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. A petition, supported in particular by feminist associations, calls for the cancellation of these concerts.
In France, he is the subject of investigations for two complaints.
One is being investigated in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) for rape on the sidelines of a film festival in October 2012. The other was filed in March in Paris for attempted rape and sexual assault. These latest facts, denounced by a person responsible for promoting French films abroad, date back to 1997, in Mexico.
A judicial investigation was also opened in Belgium after a complaint registered at the end of March for an alleged sexual assault in Brussels.
