PARIS — Prosecutors in France have opened an investigation into rape accusations against one of the country’s best-known news presenters after a female writer said that he had sexually assaulted her. The investigation against the presenter, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, was confirmed on Friday by the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre after Le Parisien newspaper reported the accusations a day earlier. Mr. Poivre d’Arvor’s lawyer, François Binet, denied the accusations and said his client would file two complaints against the writer, Florence Porcel, for making false accusations and for defamation. A series of sexual abuse scandals have rocked France’s political, cultural and media elite over the past year, including the fall from grace of a pedophile writer who for decades was protected by powerful friends.

Source: New York Times February 19, 2021 16:52 UTC