French Restaurant Chef Faces Trial for Alleged Sexual Assaults on Staff

"These are hands on the buttocks, forced kisses, offered lingerie, forced sexual acts..." lists Me Sandrine Pégand, lawyer for one of the three civil parties, interviewed by BFMTV. The facts, according to the lawyer, took place during the service and during breaks, in a room located near the restaurant. The victims only began to make themselves known in 2019, after the complaint of a first woman, Aurélie (pseudonym).

Aged 26, she claims that the defendant sexually assaulted her. She reports that Mohammed H. gave her forced massages in the rest room. She goes further by adding that the head chef made several attempted rapes. After recording the complaint, the police opened an investigation and conducted investigations that led them to the staff who had worked since 2014, the year the head chef arrived. They discover that Aurélie is not the only victim of the chef with wandering hands and very prone to sexual assault.

Julia (pseudonym), who started working at La Boutarde in 2014, the same year as Mohammed H., recounts what she suffered. "Hands on the buttocks during service, sexually charged remarks such as ’you’re hot’". Andréa (pseudonym) also describes "behaviors and gestures that made her uncomfortable" and another rape of which she says she was a victim in 2018 when she was still a virgin. The police reports were reported to the court by the investigator in charge of this case.

At the end of the investigations, the police arrested the chef. Placed in detention on February 16, 2019, he flatly rejects the accusations and claims that all this is nothing but a slander fabricated from scratch by the manager of the establishment who was considering firing him.

Born in Morocco