The account given in court was therefore not accurate. Sentenced in July to four years in prison (three of which were suspended) for sexual assault on minors, canoe-kayak coach Jean-Yves Prigent assured that he had only acted twice, with two teenagers. that he trained. With new revelations and successive complaints, the influential man’s story seems to be cracking. On Thursday, the father of Olympic athlete Camille Prigent was indicted for rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by an investigating judge at the Rennes court. He was placed in pre-trial detention.
Vice-president of the local kayak club and a key figure in the discipline, Jean-Yves Prigent is a former high-level athlete. In 1977, he was crowned world team champion. At 70 years old, he trained and supported many teenagers, hopefuls of the discipline. Two of them had filed a complaint for sexual assault committed in the coach’s camper van. On Friday, then on Saturday, the coach had invited a minor there and shared the same berth. During the hearing, he admitted to having fondled their genitals. He was sentenced to one year in prison, to be served under an electronic bracelet, and three years suspended.
Even before this trial, several other testimonies had added to this case of child abuse. One of the two complainants, who had first denounced acts of sexual assault, indicated that he had been raped several times between 2023 and 2024, “in particular during sports competitions taking place outside the department, at Prague and Bourg-Saint-Maurice,” specifies Rennes public prosecutor Frédéric Teillet. The accused would have admitted “partially the facts”.
Two young men and a young woman
A young man, now an adult, also denounced sexual assaults committed between 2005 and 2008, when he was a minor. Finally, a young woman denounced acts of sexual harassment committed between 2013 and 2018. “They were mentioned by a young woman, denouncing repeated comments made by the person concerned with sexual connotations against her,” continues the Rennes prosecutor’s office. These facts are contested by the person concerned. The investigation was entrusted to the Bruz gendarmerie, the Rennes Research Brigade and the Minors Office (OFMIN).
