The 58-year-old sports journalist is accused by a hostess from the Parc des Princes and two saleswomen from the Nike store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
He was ready. On Wednesday, the trial of Pierre Ménès, accused of sexual assault by three women, was to be held at the Paris Criminal Court. But President Éric Vivian decided to postpone the hearing to March 8, 2023. “This is a file that cannot be held in 40 minutes. I will be clear: it is not because the alleged victims are not present at the hearing and there is no complaint that we have to rush this file. You really have to take the time to be able to anticipate everything”justified the judge.
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A reprieve that hardly satisfies the sports journalist. “It has been six months that the suspicion has been on me. And six months that I am silent. And there, I resume for a year. Meanwhile, slander and lies may continue to spread, on social media and elsewhere.”he declared to our colleagues at Parisian . Last November, several months after the broadcast on Canal+ of Marie Portolano’s documentary, I’m not a bitch, I’m a journalist in which the behavior of Pierre Ménès is singled out, the latter was accused of having touched the chest of a hostess during a PSG / Nantes match played at the Parc de Princes. The journalist is also accused by two other women, saleswomen of the Nike store on the Champs-Élysées whose facts date back to June 2018.
“It makes me an ideal culprit”
Accusations strongly contested by Pierre Ménès. “I never approached this woman, near or far. It’s a pure invention.”, he assured about the hostess. In her complaint, the young woman said she was caressed by surprise with the hand “of [sa] chest up [son] belly” during halftime of the football match. “She says we pushed her around and touched her. And when she turned around, she saw me. I’m sorry, but to sneak between a woman and the wall, given my size, it’s impossible. And then she says I hit her from behind, when in fact she says I hit her from the front… Nothing is consistent”he added before emphasizing: “Frankly, with everything that fell on me, with the Canal + affair, to go and fiddle with a girl’s breast in the second half of a match — there were a few people at that time – there who came back in the gallery – you still have to be the king of the irresponsible or the king of the obsessed. But I understand public opinion, with the accumulation of things… It makes me an ideal culprit”.
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Concerning one of the saleswomen of the Parisian boutique, Pierre Ménès affirmed to have only done “what basketball players do chest to chest, in a kind of “check””. “This woman also says that I rubbed shoulders with her a little later. As you know, the basketball department in this store is located just before the checkouts. And the shop in this place is very tight, knowing that there are benches to try on the shoes. She was with a client, and I had to go to the cash register. You should know that she is a very athletic young woman, she is my height. Sure enough, I sneaked in, and I may have touched her a little at that time, but I touched her for lack of space. I had to go to the cashier”he defended himself.
” READ ALSO – “Hard period”: Pierre Ménès hospitalized for a week
Absent from court on Wednesday morning, Pierre Ménès revealed that he had “spent three weeks in intensive care”. “I got out four weeks ago. It was linked to a general infection that affected my heart, my kidneys, my lungs, my brain. So I did a battery of tests: MRI, scanner, colonoscopy, kidney biopsy… I’m not a pretty sight. The doctors aren’t sure what I have yet. […] My doctor is convinced that my state of health is directly linked to my legal troubles.underlined the sports journalist for whom all these cases are only“a conspiracy to [le] destroy”. “Because I don’t see the point of attacking a man like me. But there is a fad. We no longer count the number of well-known people who are accused of things. Moreover, for facts much more serious than me. Me, I am accused of peccadilloes. But I wonder who benefits from the crime.”
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