The pressure continues to mount around Patrick Bruel. While several women accuse him of sexual assault, attempted rape or rape, a former Enfoirés volunteer spoke to Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) to recount what she claims to have experienced during a troupe show organized in Lyon in 2012. Âgée de 22 ans à l’époque, Mathéa Léger participait à l’événement en tant que bénévole. More than ten years after the alleged facts, the young woman claims to have been warned by members of the production before even going on stage. A memory which, even today, seems particularly vivid.
“For the one who falls into Patrick Bruel’s boat, he will try something”
In her testimony broadcast in La Matinale de la RTS, Mathéa Léger says thatshe and another volunteer had been chosen to participate in a painting of the show. The two young women had to take their places in wooden boats specially installed on stage. One of them welcomed Patrick Bruel. Before the start of the performance, a briefing would have been organized by the production. According to the young woman, the instructions received that day immediately appealed to her. “We were told: for whichever of you two falls into Patrick Bruel’s boat, he will try something“, she said. In the end, it was not she who found herself in the singer’s boat, but another volunteer. Still according to her story, Patrick Bruel would then have asked the latter to follow him to his dressing room.
A person from production would then have intervened to remind people that it was a volunteer. Mathéa Léger also claims to have observed the singer’s behavior backstage after the show. “He came to prowl, like a predator, in the volunteer area“, she declared to the Swiss media. The former volunteer also talks about the discomfort felt by her colleague following this episode. “The volunteer, obviously, refused to get back in the boat. She was afraid“, she says. One memory particularly marked her: “And I just met his gaze once when we were coming off stage and it froze my blood. I’ve never been looked at like that in my entire life“The young woman also claims to have witnessed other behavior that she considered inappropriate during the VIP meetings organized after the show.”I saw him take women to the bathroom“, she says.
Patrick Bruel will not participate in the next edition of Les Enfoirés
These new accusations come as Patrick Bruel has already distanced himself from the famous troupe of Enfoirés. The singer will not participate in the next edition of the charity show organized for the benefit of the Restos du Cœur. A particularly symbolic absence for the one who was a pillar within the collective. Patrick Bruel had in fact regularly participated in the Enfoirés concerts since the beginning of the 1990s and was one of the faces the most emblematic of the troupe. According to RTL, the artist himself announced his decision in a message addressed to the other members.Given the circumstances, I have decided not to put any of you in any embarrassment (…) I hope to find you again when justice has proven my innocence“, he would have written. At the time of publication of the RTS testimony, neither the Restos du Cœur nor the representatives of Patrick Bruel had responded to requests from the Swiss media. The singer contests the accusations against him and remains presumed innocent of the facts with which he is accused, until a possible court decision.
