Former French senator jailed for spiking MP’s drink with intent to sexually assault her | EUROtoday

A former French senator has been sentenced to 4 years in jail after being discovered responsible of drugging a feminine MP with the intent to sexually assault her.

Joel Guerriau should serve 18 months of the time period behind bars and has been ordered to pay Sandrine Josso €5,000 (£4,350) in damages for inflicting emotional misery.

The 68-year-old is alleged to have invited Ms Josso, a member of the French National Assembly, to his flat in Paris in November 2023, the place he admitted to spiking her drink with MDMA.

Guerriau – who served as senator for Loire-Atlantique from 2011 to 2025 – claimed it was an accident and that he had no intention of assaulting her. His legal professionals are interesting the decision.

Court paperwork quoted by French media say Ms Josso visited Guerriau’s dwelling to have a good time his re-election when she started feeling unwell after ingesting from a champagne glass.

The drink tasted uncommon and Ms Josso thought “maybe it was a bad champagne” however when Guerriau insisted they toast once more, the 50-year-old grew to become alarmed.

Ms Josso observed her coronary heart was racing and left the flat to go to a hospital with the assistance of a good friend. A toxicology report revealed that she had 3 times the leisure dose of MDMA in her physique.

“I had gone to visit a friend and I discovered an aggressor,” she stated whereas giving proof on Monday.

“He looked at me insistently, I’d never seen him that way. I didn’t want to show him my weakness, because I was worried that if I told him I wasn’t feeling well, he would’ve forced me to lie down.”

Guerriau stated that he had been going by a troublesome psychological well being interval and had been affected by despair when the incident occurred. He had been that means to take the drug himself the night time earlier than and had by accident administered it to Ms Josso as an alternative, he claimed.

“In short, I am an idiot”, he stated.

“I feel sorry for Sandrine,” he informed the courtroom. “I am disgusted with myself, with my recklessness and my stupidity.”

He stated: “We don’t talk about the effects of these drugs enough. All I want is to speak out on the dangers of these products.”

The former senator stated that he had no recollection about making a number of web searches round ecstasy and stated: “I was on the train, thoughts and ideas just come to you”, including that authorities members want to point out curiosity in “all current events”.

Ms Josso was pressured to take six months off from work because of the ordeal and needed to have 4 enamel eliminated on account of grinding her enamel from the stress.

Prosecutor Benjamin Coulon famous that Guerriau had voted for the legislation that made it unlawful to manage a dangerous substance with intent to commit rape or sexual assault.

“What I went through is still very painful,” Ms Josso stated. “Psychological trauma feels like being frozen in time… I jump at the slightest thing. I’ve become very vulnerable.”