Vanessa Springora, who denounced in a recent book her relationship under the influence when she was a minor with the writer Gabriel Matzneff, was heard on Wednesday by the investigators, indicated concordant sources.
The 47-year-old editor was interviewed by the police from the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence Against Persons (OCRVP), responsible for the investigation of the writer, now 83 years old, we learned at midday from sources close to the investigation and the judiciary. This hearing was finished at the end of the evening.
Vanessa Springora published in early January an autobiographical novel, Le Consentement , in which she describes how she was seduced by Gabriel Matzneff when she was not yet 14 years old, in the 80s. On January 3, the day after the publication of the book, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation for "rape committed against a minor" under the age of 15. Vanessa Springora's book, which has become an event for the start of the literary season, also describes a man with predatory behavior, who goes on sex tourism in Asia.
"Identify all victims"
"Beyond the facts described by Vanessa Springora", clearly prescribed concerning her, the investigation must endeavor "to identify any other possible victims who may have suffered offenses of the same nature on national territory or abroad", said Paris prosecutor Rémy Heitz on January 3.
Vanessa Springora is the first to testify among the adolescent girls seduced by Gabriel Matzneff, whose behavior, described in his own books, has long been tolerated in the Parisian literary world. In 2013, he won the Renaudot essay prize.
Matzneff "regrets" his sex tourism in Asia
In an interview with BFMTV broadcast on Wednesday, Gabriel Matzneff said he "regretted" his past pedophile practices in Asia, while arguing that "at the time", "no one ever spoke of crime". “A tourist, a foreigner, should not behave like that. We must, adult, turn our heads, resist temptation. Naturally I regret, just as if I do something that is not right, I regret it, ”he said in this interview granted in Italy, where he has taken refuge since the affair broke out. And to add: “It was over 40 years ago! (…) You were there as a traveler and you had young boys and girls who flirted with you and jumped on you, under the benevolent eye of the police ”.
The writer, who agreed to be filmed but without showing his face, said he did not “want to read” Vanessa Springora's book. "I will never say anything against her because she is a bright person," he adds. Gabriel Matzneff estimated at the beginning of January in a letter not deserving of the "awful portrait" published by the editor.
Culture
Matzneff affair: The writer says he "regrets" his pedophile practices in Asia
- metoo
- pedophilia
- Gabriel Matzneff
- Society