Europe 1 with AFP 22:02, November 29, 2021

Pierre Ménès has been targeted since November 20 by an investigation for "sexual assault", we learned from the Paris prosecutor's office.

The former Canal Football Club columnist is accused of touching the chest of a hostess during the PSG-Nantes match played on the same day.

The former star columnist of Canal + Pierre Ménès has been targeted since November 20 by an investigation for "sexual assault", we learned from the Paris prosecutor's office, confirming information from the Parisian. According to the daily, the former columnist of the Canal Football Club is accused of having sexually assaulted a hostess during the PSG-Nantes match played the same day, by touching her chest. She reportedly reported the facts to the police without filing a complaint. The investigations were entrusted to the 1st district of judicial police (1st DPJ), specified the Paris prosecutor's office.

"My client, Pierre Ménès, attended the PSG - Nantes match. He was accompanied by three people throughout the evening." The evening went very well and this is confirmed by the CERFA certificates of the three people who attended the 'have accompanied everywhere There was absolutely no problem, "his lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh, told AFP.

Documentary by Marie Portolano: the debate should not revolve exclusively around Pierre Ménes

"A slanderous denunciation", according to his lawyer

"My client will file a complaint for slanderous denunciation if it undermines his honor or his consideration," threatened the council of Pierre Ménès.

Sidelined at the end of March after accusations of sexual assault, Pierre Ménès, 58, left the encrypted channel on July 1, ending nearly 12 years of collaboration. This departure is the consequence of the broadcast on March 21 on Canal + of a documentary on sexism in sports editors and the revelation of incriminating sequences, cut during the editing at the request of the channel, suspected of having protected him.

Pierre Ménès, 58, is notably accused of having lifted off the air in 2016 the skirt of journalist Marie Portolano, co-director of the documentary.

He says he does not remember it because of serious health problems at the time: a non-alcoholic cirrhosis which kept him away from the plateaus for seven months and required a double transplant of the liver and a kidney.

He is also criticized for having forcibly kissed journalist Isabelle Moreau on television in 2011, as well as columnist Francesca Antoniotti in 2016.