A second woman recently filed a rape complaint against rapper Lomepal. The latter was confronted on February 27 by his accusers during police custody as part of the preliminary investigation against him in Paris, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from sources close to the case. After these confrontations, the singer’s “custody measure” was “lifted for continuation of preliminary investigations”, the Paris prosecutor’s office declared to AFP on Wednesday March 6.
The investigations were launched after the filing in 2020 of a complaint from an acquaintance of the rapper, who accused him of having raped her in 2017 in New York. A second woman filed a complaint at the end of 2023, denouncing acts of rape in 2018 that took place in France, two of the sources close to the case said on Wednesday. In both cases, the facts would have taken place “at the home of the complainants”, added another source close to the case.
“Our client will not speak for the moment, because he wants to let justice work peacefully,” his lawyers, Jacqueline Laffont and Julie Benedetti, reacted to AFP. “He was heard at length, was able to respond precisely and provide decisive material elements,” they assured. “The criminal classification of the alleged facts is widely subject to debate. His police custody was lifted well before the end of the legal period and without prosecution. The rest of the investigation will establish his innocence,” his counsel further affirmed.
Concert canceled
At the beginning of August, after the investigation was revealed in the press, the singer spoke on his Instagram account: “Did I force anyone to do anything? No. Have there been any illegal things? No. And I will never let it be said. » “Late night meetings, where we make love without knowing each other, one-night stands. And for me like everyone else, there can be misunderstandings, different perceptions,” said the Parisian rapper, 32 years old.
He denounced “delusional and fabricated stories circulating in the music industry”. “We would pay women, we would sign silence agreements, and so on. (…) All this is absurd and false,” he insisted.
Lomepal performed at the Electronic Beaches festival in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) a few days later. On the other hand, the Cabaret vert festival in Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes) canceled its concert planned for mid-August, believing “that a time of retreat and silence was necessary”.
On July 19, the editor-in-chief of the online media Joly Môme, Jenna Boulmedaïs, revealed on Instagram that she had heard for two years “testimonies from women who have suffered the inappropriate and unwanted gestures of Antoine [Valentinelli, alias] Lomepal”. “The whole music industry knows about it. This silence is literally no longer possible. Seeing his name headlining many festivals as well,” denounced the one who has since been the subject of a complaint from the French Music Federation.
