Paris (AFP)
"I absolutely deny", "pure lie", "it's disgusting" ... Judged on appeal to the Paris Assizes, the former Secretary of State Georges Tron firmly maintained on Friday at the helm his categorical denial of the accusations rape and sexual assault of his former collaborators.
Faced with their accounts of forced sexual scenes, the 63-year-old elected official with long gray hair pulled back reiterates before the court the wholesale denials he has opposed them since the start of the proceedings in 2011.
"I'm anything but a perfect man," he concedes.
But if the almost three weeks of trial exposed "weaknesses" and "weaknesses" of his personality, he maintains to be no less innocent.
Two former employees of the town of Draveil (Essonne) accuse the mayor LR of having imposed touching and digital penetrations on them between 2007 and 2010, generally during threesome scenes with his deputy for Culture at the time Brigitte Gruel.
The two defendants claim their innocence and fiercely deny any sexual relationship with the complainants, or even between them.
They were acquitted at first instance in 2018.
At the helm, Georges Tron first displays a calm and composed attitude.
His distinguished elocution and his sustained politeness towards the court ooze good education.
When he digresses the different categories of civil servants suddenly reappears in him the former Secretary of State for the Civil Service.
A technical portfolio in the government of François Fillon that the scandal for which he appears forced him to leave with a crash.
But, over the hours, under the rolling fire of questions from the court, the annoyance sometimes wins Georges Tron.
Some answers are more concise, more raw.
"Is it a man's pleasure to put a finger in the parts of a woman? I find that implausible!", Squeaks the chosen one, the scarf slipped under his gray cashmere sweater.
- "Target" -
"I had the misfortune to say one day that I loved women, I was criticized ten times in the procedure. I totally respect women!", Defends Mr. Tron.
A claimed practitioner of plantar reflexology, he denies any "sexual connotation" to the frequent foot massages he lavished around him.
The former secretary of state finds himself however with difficulty when the court urges him to explain a telephone conversation of his mistress overheard by investigators in the fall of 2011. She makes remarks there which seem to confirm in part the statements of the complainants.
Sylvie D. evokes in particular sexual scenes with several people with Georges Tron, and speaks of a "hold" of the mayor of Draveil on women.
"He does not force you with a gun (...) It is all suggested, it is completely ridiculous", declares in particular his mistress according to a transcription read by the president at the hearing.
"If he's whitewashed in that stuff, it's going to be an eyesore," she said to it as well.
These conversations are "a moment of extreme confusion" on the part of his mistress, with whom he had an extramarital relationship until last year, the accused ends up advancing.
The city councilor affirms that the plaintiffs participate in a "plot" linked to the political life of Draveil and intended to bring him down.
His political opponents in Essonne, whose names he regularly evokes at the hearing, seem to obsess him, almost to the point of paranoia.
"I am the target, it is me that we want to kill", launches Georges Tron.
At first instance in 2018, the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis had found the existence of sexual scenes credible but ruled out the presence of a situation of constraint between the elected official and the two women.
The civil parties hope on appeal to prove the contrary.
The verdict is expected next Wednesday.
Georges Tron and Brigitte Gruel face up to twenty years of criminal imprisonment.
© 2021 AFP