France<\/a> was stunned by a case that saw Frenchman Dominique Pelicot jailed for 20 years for repeatedly drugging his then-wife so he and dozens of strangers could rape her.<\/p>\nNational Assembly MP Sandrine Josso said shortly after Tuesday\u2019s verdict that it was a \u201chuge relief\u201d. Guerriau\u2019s lawyers said he would appeal.<\/p>\n
French prosecutors had sought a four-year prison sentence for the former senator, who described the drugging of his friend of 10 years in November 2023 as an accident and called himself an \u201cidiot\u201d.<\/p>\n
Guerriau, who has denied any sexual motivation against Josso, resigned from the upper house in October. He was expelled from the centre-right Horizons party soon after.<\/p>\n
On Monday, a visibly distressed Josso, 50, said she thought she would die after going to see Guerriau at his apartment in the French capital\u2019s chic 6th district.<\/p>\n
She told the Paris court that she had gone to see Guerriau \u201cwith a light heart to celebrate his re-election. As the evening went on, I discovered an attacker.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was the only guest at his Paris home that evening, and after he poured her a glass of champagne in the kitchen, she noted it tasted sweet and sticky.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought maybe it was a bad champagne. Then he insisted that we toast again. I found that odd,\u201d she said in court.<\/p>\n
Josso described soon feeling unwell with a racing heartrate, and she left hurriedly before going to hospital.<\/p>\n
A toxicology report revealed a high dose of the drug in her blood. Ecstasy was also found at Guerriau\u2019s flat.<\/p>\n
Her lawyer, Arnaud Godefroy, said the lawmaker has struggled with the consequences of what had happened to her.<\/p>\n
Godefroy said Josso had taken six months off work, during she had \u201cphysical treatment, psychological and psychiatric follow-up, nightmares, flashbacks, dissociation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Josso said she had to have four teeth removed because of the stress that caused her to grind her teeth.<\/p>\n
Guerriau said he had poured the powdered ecstasy into a glass the day prior to their celebration to help calm a panic attack, but then decided against taking it, placing the glass back in the cupboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn short, I am an idiot,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
Earlier Tuesday, prosecutor Benjamin Coulon argued that Guerriau \u201cdeliberately placed\u201d MDMA in Josso\u2019s champagne and requested a five-year ban from public office.<\/p>\n
He also demanded that the former senator be placed on the sex offender register, in addition to the jail term.<\/p>\n
Guerriau, who served as a senator from 2011 to 2025, had voted for the law creating the offence of administering a harmful substance with intent to commit rape or sexual assault, Coulon said.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor stressed that, as an elected official, Guerriau was duty-bound to \u201cset an example\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he also said that Guerriau had no criminal record and had \u201cdevoted part of his life to the functioning of French democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n
The centrist politician \u201cdid not act on his intentions, it is true, no gestures were made towards Ms Josso, but he did administer drugs to her with the aim of raping her\u201d, argued Coulon.<\/p>\n
If he drugged her, he said ironically, was it \u201cto steal her wallet?\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the politician\u2019s lawyers, Henri Carpentier, said that as soon as the case came to light, \u201cthe emotion was unanimous, the disgust legitimate\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmotion is a bad adviser, it erases all nuance,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
France last year adopted the principle of consent into the definition of the crime of rape, after other European countries like the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#French #senator #guilty #drugging #intent #sexually #assault #France<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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