The entrance to the Grenoble court on October 15, 2012 -
Jean-Pierre Clatot AFP
The mayor of a village in the Hautes-Alpes was indicted on Saturday for rape and sexual assault, facts for which seven young girls have lodged a complaint and which he has recognized, according to the Grenoble prosecutor's office.
Aged 69, the city councilor was arrested at home and taken into police custody Thursday as part of a preliminary investigation opened two weeks ago in Gap, as the regional daily
Le Dauphiné Libéré
had mentioned on Friday
.
Several young girls, aged 10 to 15, denounced acts of sexual assault and a 16-year-old denounced a rape - a digital penetration that took place in 2018 - according to the prosecution.
Seven have filed a complaint.
"They reproach the mayor of Montgardin for having welcomed them to his home for snacks, during which he took the opportunity to give them" hugs "" by caressing their thighs, buttocks or chest, or by grabbing them by the hips, detailed the prosecutor of Grenoble in a press release.
"Some of the facts denounced are recent" and go back to early March, "others would have been committed a few months and several years earlier," a source close to the investigation said on Friday.
A judicial investigation was opened and the defendant, who admitted the facts, was indicted for sexual assault on minors of 15 years, rape of minors over 15 years and possession of child pornography images.
He faces 20 years of criminal imprisonment.
The elected official was remanded in custody.
Justice
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Politics
François Asselineau, accused of "sexual assault", was reelected at the head of the UPR
Sexual assault
Rape
Miscellaneous