Women have described wetting themselves and being forced to urinate right into a river after allegedly being drugged on job interviews.
Christian Nègre, a former human resources director and civil servant at France’s culture ministry is accused of spiking 248 women with a strong diuretic between 2009 and 2018.
The official allegedly laced the coffee and teas of victims before taking them on ‘walking interviews’ around Paris, during which the ladies would suddenly need the bathroom.
He took secret pictures of the ladies interviewees and recorded details of the encounters on an Excel spreadsheet titled ‘experiments’.
Nicknamed the photographer, Nègre was only caught when a collleague saw him photographing a female official’s legs of their office in 2018.
That led police to a trove of files of the ladies and he was charged with administering harmful substances without consent.
The civil servant stays free seven years after a probe was opened in 2019, because the judicial process has faced delays.
The alleged victims now only have a month to submit their testimonies before the inquiry is closed.
One woman, Marie-Hélène Brice, described how she thought she was getting her life back on course when she was offered a job interview with Nègre in 2016.
She told The Telegraph that soon after the pair began walking she was suddenly left in agony by the urge to urinate.
Ms Brice was forced to urinate right into a river, with the civil servant covering her with a jacket, while Nègre looked her within the eyes.
She added: ‘It was a double shock. First, you think that it’s your fault. You then discover you were poisoned.’
One other woman, Anaïs de Vos, alleged she was given a drink before being taken on a walk through the Tuileries Gardens towards the Louvre in Paris in 2011.
‘I realised something was improper when he suggested I relieve myself under a bridge,’ she said.
‘I assumed: If I’m going in there, he might attack me.’
She refused but eventually needed to rush to an upstairs cafe toilet near the Louvre, urinating herself on the best way.
Eight years later, police read details of her from Nègre’s Excel file, recounting how she ‘still needed to hold on’, ‘moaned’ and ‘disappeared for quarter-hour’.
One other alleged victim, Elise Daniaud Oudeh, says she had to alleviate herself near the Seine after meeting Nègre.
She said: ‘I assumed it was my fault. I never imagined someone could put something in my drink at a ministry.’
Ms Oudeh continued: ‘We still think that rape, rapists and paedophiles are literally exceptions, they’re monsters… No, they’re integrated individuals who have children, who’re married, who work, they usually are in any respect social levels.’
One other victim described having nightmares after she was allegedly drugged, adding: ‘When I’m going to the bathroom, it brings all the pieces back.’
She was so humiliated she stopped applying for jobs and her unemployment advantages ran out.
Louise Beriot, a lawyer for several of the ladies, said of the alleged druggings: ‘Under the pretext of a sexual fantasy, that is about power and domination over women’s bodies… through humiliation and control.’
Nègre has not publicly apologised to the ladies.
The Telegraph reports that when he was first contacted in regards to the allegations in 2019, he acknowledged administering diuretics and taking some photographs, but minimised his conduct and the variety of victims.
After he left the civil service, worked at a business school in Caen under a unique surname.
His identity was discovered by students and he was dismissed.
In 2023, the French state was ordered to pay as much as £14,000 to seven alleged victims in a civil case.
Nonetheless the culture ministry was found to not be at fault as an employer.
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