The court found the former Canal+ columnist guilty of "part" of the facts concerning a saleswoman in a Nike store in 2018, but it acquitted him of a second saleswoman and a charge of touching the Parc des Princes in 2021.

The court ruled that "the initial contact" described by the saleswoman of the Champs-Elysées store was "corroborated by the videos, however, for the rest, the court considered that there was a consequent doubt and that he could not enter into the process of guilt," said the president.

The magistrate "pointed out" that he "went to the minimum of the sentence", and did not register Pierre Ménès in the automated judicial file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (FIJAIS). He was sentenced to a "mandatory additional sentence of ineligibility of one year".

"Pierre Ménès is acquitted at 90%, even 95% of the facts (...) I saw 60% of the journalists here and most of your colleagues who, for the Parc des Princes, had already sentenced him three feet underground, he is acquitted, exonerated. On the part of Nike, 90% of the facts, he is acquitted, "said his lawyer Arash Derambarsh.

"He is condemned (...) for hands, where he allegedly touched the hands of the saleswoman, on the basis of a video that was deliberately destroyed by the public prosecutor (...) Obviously, this is unacceptable because our client has never intentionally committed any sexual offence," he added.

The defense said it was likely to appeal.

During the trial on March 8, the prosecutor had requested eight months of suspended prison and a fine of 6,000 euros for "behavior that is criminally reprehensible" and that "correspond to a kind of abuse of notoriety, power".

During the trial, Mr. Ménès had vigorously contested any sexual assault, denouncing an "empty file". He filed a complaint for "violation of the confidentiality of the investigation" and "slanderous denunciation".

The former columnist of the "Canal Football Club" left the company on July 1, 2021, ending nearly twelve years of collaboration, after a scandal related to the broadcast of the documentary "I am a journalist, I am not a slut".

Accusations stemming from this documentary are being investigated in Nanterre for sexual assault and sexual harassment.

© 2023 AFP