Flavie Flament announced on Friday that she has filed a complaint against the 67-year-old singer Patrick Bruel, whom she accuses of raping her in 1991, when the French journalist was 16, according to Le Monde.
In April, Mediapart had published a press material with the accusations of several women against Patrick Bruel, including Flavie Flament, who has now decided to speak publicly about the case.
“I speak for the girl I once was, I speak for the other women who have come out of silence, bravely, with difficulty, and whose words are being questioned. I believe them,” she said in an Instagram post.
In October 2016, Flavie Flament told in her book, “La Consolation”, that she was raped at the age of 13. According to Le Monde, then it was about the photographer David Hamilton, whom the journalist did not name in the book.
Patrick Bruel is already the subject of three investigations, opened in Paris, in Saint-Malo and in Belgium.
On March 12, Daniela Elstner, CEO of Unifrance, also filed a complaint on behalf of Bruel, whom she accuses of sexual assault and attempted rape.
On May 10, dozens of people protested outside a luxury hotel he owns in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Vaucluse.
Patrick Bruel's reaction after Flavie Flament's post
The singer's lawyers claim that he and the journalist met in the 1990s and that their relationship was “episodic”. “He never drugged Flavie Flament and never forced her to have sex,” Christophe Ingrain and Céline Lasek told AFP on Friday.
“Their paths have crossed several times over the years, especially in television programs, but also in private moments, including vacations. Flavie Flament also invited him to several programs she presented, which completely contradicts her current account,” added the two lawyers.
In April, also through his lawyers, Patrick Bruel denied in statements to Le Monde any “violence”, “brutality” or “coercion” towards the various women who accused him of sexual assault or attempted rape.
