The Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Friday February 23 that it had opened an investigation after receiving six reports of “rape and sexual assault, sometimes against minor victims” targeting Gérard Miller. The psychoanalyst and columnist, aged 75, defended himself in a letter at the time of the first accusations which appeared in the press at the end of January, claiming to have “the conviction of not having coerced anyone”.

In detail, the public prosecutor’s office received, as of Thursday, six reports received “by mail or at a police station followed by a report to the public prosecutor’s office from women declaring that they had suffered at least sexualized acts from by Gérard Miller, to whom they report not having given their consent, between 1995 and 2005,” he said, confirming information from Elle magazine. To examine these reports, the prosecution “has, at this stage, instructed the direction of the Paris judicial police (DRPJ) to investigate facts likely to be qualified as rape and sexual assault, sometimes against minor victims” .

It is the brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP) which will carry out the investigations, a source close to the matter told Agence France-Presse. “It will be up to the prosecution to determine the materiality and qualification of the facts, to measure their possible prescription and to assess the follow-up to be given,” he added. Le Monde was able to consult the content of a third complaint against Mr. Miller on Wednesday, after a revelation from Le Parisien.

“I am convinced that I have not forced anyone.”

Gérard Miller, regular columnist for several radio and television shows, committed to the left and support of Jean-Luc Mélenchon since 2012, is accused of inappropriate behavior and sexual violence by dozens of women, some of them during sessions of hypnosis. Elle magazine then Mediapart relayed these accusations.

After the publication of the first testimonies, at the end of January, Gérard Miller published a letter on refusal, especially when I embarked on the path of seduction,” he argued.

He also denied having practiced hypnosis in his office or at his home, claiming to have always done it in public. The sessions in a private setting were “elementary tests” and “the one who agreed to engage in them was absolutely not hypnotized, he or she remained perfectly conscious, in total possession of his or her means,” assured Gérard Miller.