Almost 250 women have come forward to claim a French civil servant drugged them during a job interview so they would urinate on themselves.
Christian Nègre is accused of lacing the alleged victims’ coffee and tea before taking them on ‘walking interviews’ around Paris and away from toilets.
He reportedly took secret pictures of the women interviewees and recorded details of the encounters on an Excel spreadsheet titled ‘experiments’.
Nègre was only caught when a colleague saw him photographing a female official’s legs in their office in 2018,after almost a decade of abuse.
His lawyer,Vanessa Stein,said he would not comment while the investigation continues.
One woman,Anaïs de Vos,has alleged that she told him after becoming desperate for the toilet,noting he looked ‘weird’ and ‘almost gleeful’.
Read more here.
She eventually found a cafe that let her use their toilet. By then she felt ‘so weak’ that she lost control and wet herself.
Another woman,Marie-Hélène Brice,was interviewed by Nègre six years later in Strasbourg for a job at the Ministry of Culture.
She claimed he told her she looked stressed so suggested a walk to ‘calm her nerves’. Brice began to experience an uncontrollable urge to urinate.
‘I was really starting to suffer… pains to the point that I was white,pale,I had tears streaming down,’ she said.
He had allegedly walked her to a location he claimed there was a public toilet but there wasn’t one. She then wet herself as she had no choice.
Nègre had offered to shield her with his jacket but Brice said he ‘didn’t take his eyes off her’,admitting she was ‘terribly embarrassed’ and ashamed for years.
The allegations against Nègre between 2009 and 2018 involve chemical submission – a concept linked to the 2024 case of Gisele Pelicot’s husband who sedated her for strangers to rape her.
Nègre,who is in his 60s,is under formal investigation on charges that include drugging,invasion of privacy and sexual assault. He is awaiting trial.
He took de Vos to the Louvre where she hoped there would be facilities (Picture: AP Photo/)
De Vos said she was grateful that he didn’t see her when she did eventually urinate,adding that her dress helped disguise what had happened.
She said she felt ‘dizzy and drained’ after the interview,which ultimately did not lead to a job,and had been left feeling self-conscious and suspicious of Nègre.
It was only in 2019 when she was contacted by the police that she found out what had actually happened to her.
They had reportedly found her through a spreadsheet on his computer,which was titled Experiments P,and detailed interviews,the time the diuretic was administered,what underwear they were wearing,and how long it took to take effect.
The investigation into Nègre began after he was caught taking a picture of a woman from under a table in 2018,as revealed by prosecutors in February.
He was suspended from his job as regional director of cultural affairs then sacked from his role in 2019.
Nègre’s case has been ongoing for seven years without resolution and it’s claimed by Fondation des Femmes that he is still employed in human resources.
The women are campaigning for the French government to take what happened to them seriously,with many considering it a form of sexual assault.
The government and police have not issued a statement on the case.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .
For more stories like this,check our news page.
