The general prosecutor’s office on Wednesday requested six months in prison with suspended probation against the real estate agent and former television host Stéphane Plaza at his appeal trial for domestic violence, a more lenient sentence than at first instance.
The prosecution requested that the sentence be suspended for two years, with provisional execution, that Mr. Plaza not come into contact with one of the two civil parties, and that he complete an awareness course on domestic violence.
The former star host of M6 was sentenced at first instance, in February 2025, to a one-year suspended prison sentence for physical and psychological violence committed between 2018 and 2022 against one of his former companions.
During a conflict, the 56-year-old man notably broke a finger and dislocated two others.
Stéphane Plaza, on the other hand, had been acquitted of acts of psychological violence concerning a second woman, Paola, the criminal court considering, without “questioning his word”, that the alleged violence was mainly based “on his statements”.
Advocate General Nadine Perrin also considered that the elements were “not sufficient” concerning this complainant and therefore did not ask that he be convicted for these facts.
Regarding the other woman, Amandine, the representative of the public prosecutor asked to reclassify the facts to abandon the “usual” aspect of intentional violence, committed in 2018 and 2022.
She dismissed two episodes of violence denounced by Amandine, believing for example to have “difficult to establish” the intention of Mr. Plaza to denigrate her when he had suggested to a man in Morocco to give him the young woman as a gift, “even if there is no doubt that paying the price for a joke of this type is particularly humiliating”.
“Atypical”
The magistrate began her requisitions by emphasizing that the case was “atypical”, particularly in the way in which it had started, with an article in Mediapart.
There is “no question of denying the level of suffering (of the two complainants, editor’s note) in the face of the various betrayals, lies, manipulations of which they were victims”, she assured, adding however that the doubt should benefit the people being prosecuted and that she would take “nuanced requisitions”.
“It’s quite dismaying,” reacted Ms. Lisa Gordet, one of Amandine’s advisors. “We realize a little that the public prosecutor perhaps did not have such control of the case as one might have expected at the stage of an appeal,” she declared, observing in particular that the victims had been “reproached for having used the media initially to make a report”.
Me Benjamin Chouai, another lawyer for Amandine, for his part castigated in his pleading the “insincerity” of Mr. Plaza, who during the trial “rather described himself as a redneck, a cad, a liar, an unfaithful personality, a guy with a somewhat heavy humor, repetition”. He denounced a “continuum of violence”.
“There has never been any violence, either towards Amandine or any other woman,” argued Me Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez. During the trial, the ex-host had already denied being “violent”, and argued that the episode during which he broke his former partner’s finger was “unintentional violence”.
The image and brand of the host, propelled in 2006 to the head of the show “Research apartment or house” or “Chasseurs d’appart” (2015), have been lastingly tarnished since his conviction.
Network agencies can now choose to change their name to a new brand, “Sixth Avenue”.
In May 2025, he also had to pay a fine of 3,000 euros for drug use after twenty-four hours in police custody.
