The trial of television host Jean-Marc Morandini, prosecuted for “sexual harassment” against a young actor, opened on Tuesday June 13 before the Paris court in the presence of the defendant. The trial is scheduled for two days. These lawsuits relate to the filming, between June and September 2015, of a web series entitled Les Faucons, of which Jean-Marc Morandini was the producer. He is also in this context tried for “concealed work” of five plaintiffs by his production company Ne zappez pas! production (NZPP) .
The host of the CNews channel (Canal group) would have encouraged young actors, aged 19 to 26 at the time, to show themselves naked for the castings of this series. A pseudo casting director, Catherine Leclerc (in reality Jean-Marc Morandini under a pseudonym), had sent them emails insistently asking them to send videos of them naked, with their pubes shaved, and of scenes of masturbation sometimes with ejaculation.
According to the investigators, the “totally fictional character” of Catherine Leclerc constituted a “maternal and reassuring figure inspiring confidence”, in particular to the youngest of the complainants, an actor without an agent, without training and without experience of the film industry, encouraging him “to always pushing the limits in the act of a sexual nature, under the alleged pretext of working on one’s posture as an actor”.
This young actor had notably received in August 2015 two e-mails from the fake Catherine, signed “mom”, asking him if he was ready to perform oral sex on Jean-Marc Morandini “who is not just anyone”. . The young man, anxious not to miss the opportunity to become an actor, replied: “Obviously I’m not going to be picky about nudity (…). I will obey what you order me. »
In December, the host was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence accompanied by a two-year care obligation and his registration in the file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (Fijais) for acts of ” corruption of minors” committed on three teenagers between 2009 and 2016, during electronic exchanges of a sexual nature and a casting at his home.
Jean-Marc Morandini appealed against this conviction and remains presumed innocent.
