Police search home of French writer accused of raping a minor | ABS-CBN

ADVERTISEMENT

dpo-dps-seal
Welcome, Kapamilya! We use cookies to improve your browsing experience. Continuing to use this site means you agree to our use of cookies. Tell me more!

Police search home of French writer accused of raping a minor

Police search home of French writer accused of raping a minor

Agence France-Presse

Clipboard

In this file photo taken on April 10, 2014 French writer Gabriel Matzneff leaves a church after attending French author Regine Deforges's funeral in Paris. The home of Gabriel Matzneff, was searched on February 13, 2020, in the investigation for "rape of a minor" under age 15, which targets the 83-year-old writer, after a judicial source confirmed the information from Le Parisien newspaper. Jacques Demarthon, AFP

PARIS, France - French police on Thursday searched the home of a writer accused of raping a minor and who repeatedly described relationships with young teens in his work, a source said.

Gabriel Matzneff, who has never made any secret of his preference for sex with adolescent girls and boys, is to stand trial this year on a charge of justifying pedophilia.

Specialist investigators are looking for written passages that never appeared in any of Matzneff's published work, a source told AFP following a raid a day earlier at his Paris-based publisher Gallimard.

Prosecutors on January 3 launched a rape investigation after a bombshell book by publisher Vanessa Springora claimed she had a sexual relationship with the author three decades ago, starting when she was 14.

ADVERTISEMENT

In her book "Le Consentement" (Consent), Springora described how her experiences with Matzneff, now 83, left lasting scars.

In the mid-1970s, he published a notorious essay called "Les Moins de Seize Ans" (The under 16s).

In an interview in 2008, he said he had "self-censored" certain portions of his writing he feared would be judged "especially scandalous", and hid these away in a bank safe.

The safe had been "located" by investigators, according to the Mediapart investigative website.

Matzneff has long been tolerated, admired and even protected in Paris literary circles. In 2013, he won the prestigious Renaudot prize.

ADVERTISEMENT

But Gallimard said in January it was halting the sale of his works, and Matzneff risks losing two major state honors.

He said in an interview with French television in January that he "regrets" his trips to Asia to have sex with minors, claiming that at the time "no one ever said it was a crime".

On Tuesday, police launched an appeal for witnesses and victims to come forward in the case.

A source told AFP that investigators were also interested in Christian Giudicelli, Matzneff's editor at Gallimard and travel companion to the Philippines.

In a separate legal case, Matzneff will be tried on September 28, 2021, for "justification" of pedophile acts in statements he made in the media in response to Springora's allegations.

ADVERTISEMENT

Charges against him were brought by anti-paedophilia group l'Ange Bleu (Blue Angel).

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

It looks like you’re using an ad blocker

Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.

Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.