French investigators have opened five new probes into rape allegations against former prime-time news presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, prosecutors said on Wednesday, July 31.
The 76-year-old has denied repeated accusations of rape or sexual assault. In December he was charged with the rape of writer Florence Porcel in 2009. That probe was widened in February to look into claims of the rape of two more women and a sexual assault of another committed between 2007 and 2018, which could lead to fresh charges.
The new investigations, first reported by Libération, are into accusations of rape during an earlier period, the prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre confirmed to Le Monde. The five accusers had filed previous complaints that were rejected for being past the statute of limitations, the prosecutor's office said.
Amongst the five accusers, journalist Hélène Devynck has alleged the television presenter raped her when she was his assistant in 1993. Another journalist, Stéphanie Khayat, has accused him of two rapes in 1994 and 1997. Marie-Laure Eude-Delattre claims Poivre d'Arvor raped her as a 23-year-old intern at the Cannes Film Festival in 1985. Margot Cauquil-Gleizes, now a teacher, said he raped her the same year when she was 17.
They were identified by their lawyer Corinne Herrmann. It was not immediately clear who the fifth person was.
After a preliminary inquiry opened in 2021, prosecutors dropped 19 out of 22 testimonies or legal complaints accusing the veteran presenter of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment for being past the statute of limitations. But the five plaintiffs have used another legal channel to obtain investigations.
Herrmann said "these cases are not past the statute of limitations because there are several of them. When you have a cascade of cases, the latest annuls the statute of limitations for the one before it."
Poivre d'Arvor's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Agence France-Presse.