The Caen judicial court on Thursday, September 7, sentenced director Andréa Bescond to a fine and damages for defamation against an athlete who had been placed in police custody for sexual assault, we learned from reliable sources.
On December 20, 2022, Andréa Bescond wrote in one of her “black posts” where she denounces violence by men against women on social networks: “You are Wilfried Happio. You are a professional athlete. You are in police custody because you are accused of sexual assault. We will be able to set up the club of rapist athletes (…)”.
For this publication, the author of the play “Les Chatouilles ou la danse de la anger” was sentenced to a fine of “2,000 euros suspended, 1,500 euros in damages and reimbursement of lawyers’ fees”, specified his lawyer Marie Grimaud. She said an appeal would be filed in the coming days.
Mr. Happio’s lawyer, Me Anthony Mottais, said he was “satisfied with this judgment, regardless of Ms. Bescond’s guilt. Above all, he reminds us that justice does not come to social networks through peremptory assertions, in this case that Mr. Happio is a rapist when he has never been brought before a court.
Me Grimaud, for her part, understands this decision “not as a guilt of defamation but a condemnation of the black posts” of her client. The debates were “very focused on his personality, his other posts, his vision of justice, it is a moral lesson on the excellence of the work that justice can do,” she declared .
“As a specialist lawyer, I am shocked by the amount of damages of 1,500 euros, this is usually what is awarded as moral damage to parents of child victims of sexual assault,” she said. added.
The complaint filed at the end of June 2022 by an international athlete who targeted Wilfried Happio, 400m hurdles specialist and medal hope at the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, was dismissed in June 2023.
The complainant denounced touching in September 2021 at the National Institute for Sport, Expertise and Performance (Insep), which had not sanctioned Mr. Happio after an internal investigation. He had himself lodged a complaint after being hit in the face on June 25, 2022 in Caen during the French Athletics Championships by the complainant’s brother.