A new complaint for rape has been filed against singer and actor Patrick Bruel, already accused of rape and sexual assault, AFP learned Friday from a source close to the case.
• Also read: Patrick Bruel targeted by three new complaints for sexual violence
• Also read: Patrick Bruel accused of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment
• Also read: The fall of an idol: from “Bruelmania” to accusations of rape
This new complaint, filed on June 24 with the Nanterre police, near Paris, was transmitted to the four investigating judges seized of the case, according to the same source.
The 67-year-old artist has already been indicted since June 10 in four cases: a rape in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, in 2008, an attempted rape in 2010 in Brussels, a case of sexual assault and sexual harassment in Perpignan, in the south of France, in 2019 and a case of sexual harassment in Ajaccio, in Corsica, in 2019.
He is placed under the status of assisted witness in four other cases.
The four investigating judges are also seized of acts of sexual violence denounced by several other women which seem a priori prescribed.
Since Patrick Bruel’s indictment, at least five complaints have been filed against him for rape, attempted rape and sexual assault, committed between September 1992 and 2014.
Added to this is the new complaint for rape which concerns facts which are not prescribed, according to the source close to the case.
The complainant accuses the singer of having raped her in the Paris region in the 2000s when she was 16 years old. At the time of the alleged events, she was working as a model.
Contacted by AFP, his lawyer, Tristan Vieules-Augendre, confirmed the filing of the complaint.
“The young woman whom we are supporting in this difficult process of filing a complaint does not wish to expose herself publicly at this stage and reserves the account of the particularly serious facts of which she was the victim to the judicial authority, in whom she places her trust,” indicated Me Vieules-Augendre.
Since the start of the procedure, Patrick Bruel has denied all of the facts with which he is accused.
Requested by AFP on Friday, his advisors, Fanny Colin, Céline Lasek and Christophe Ingrain, indicated that the singer will answer “for these inept accusations in the only relevant and appropriate framework: justice, if these facts are brought before it.”
“Only the judicial authority is today able to establish the facts in a case constantly polluted by media noise. Mr. Bruel is questioned on anonymous accusations, without date, without details of facts or location. Justice does not tolerate these approximations. It is therefore within this framework that he will respond,” they added.
