Paris (AFP)

The mother of young skating champion Nadjma Mahamoud, who accused ex-trainer Gilles Beyer in early February of sexual harassment and blackmail between 2017 and 2018, was heard on Friday by investigators, AFP learned from concordant sources .

The hearing at the brigade for the protection of minors, in charge of the preliminary investigation opened at the beginning of February by the Paris public prosecutor's office for "rapes" and "sexual assaults on minors by person having authority over the victim", ended in midday, a judicial source said.

This woman told L'Equipe at the beginning of February that her daughter, Nadjma, champion of France junior in 2014, wanted to join in the fall of 2017 the Parisian club of flying French, where Gilles Beyer then officiated.

As soon as I made contact, the manager "started sending me obscene messages regularly," she said. "Almost every day".

A first meeting takes place two weeks later in the presence also of the teenager and another trainer, at the end of which he "touched her buttocks", continued this mother.

She accuses Gilles Beyer of going so far as to ask him for sexual favors in exchange for free lessons. "You sleep with me and you pay nothing and I bring your daughter up to high level ...", he would have suggested. "He knew that I had few means, he wanted to take advantage of the situation. I felt humiliated," said the mother.

"No comments. My client is at the disposal of justice," replied AFP Gilles Beyer's lawyer, Me Thibault de Montbrial.

Gilles Beyer is also accused by two skaters, including former champion Sarah Abitbol, ​​of rape and sexual assault that took place between the late 1970s and the early 1990s.

Sarah Abitbol was heard on Monday by investigators.

Gilles Beyer, 62, acknowledged in a written statement to AFP "intimate" and "inappropriate" relations with Sarah Abitbol, ​​offering her "apologies" immediately refused by her.

The revelation of this scandal caused the resignation under pressure of the historic boss of the French Federation of ice sports, Didier Gailhaguet.

© 2020 AFP