The investigation into the possible responsibility of a Parisian elected official for the suicide, in 2021, of Guillaume T., a student who accused him of rape and whose testimony had sparked a movement
“This ranking does not surprise me. All the accusations were false, those of rape and those of violence ”, reacted Me Fanny Colin, lawyer for Maxime Cochard, adviser to the town hall of Paris, who had been implicated. Me Colin also wishes that Maxime Cochard and the latter’s companion, who had been “unfairly ousted”, “be immediately reinstated” in their professional duties.
“Finally officially cleared by justice,” said Maxime Cochard on Twitter. “It was all wrong. It was a lie. I will speak about all this later. Thanks to all of you who supported us! Friendship and brotherhood are stronger than hatred and slander. »
Withdrawal from the Communist Party
On January 21, 2021 on Twitter, Guillaume T., 20, accused Maxime Cochard, then elected PCF, and his companion of rape. The elected official disputed these accusations, which then sparked hundreds of other messages about sexual violence in gay circles.
The Communist Party then announced that it had asked Mr. Cochard and his companion “to withdraw from all their responsibilities of the PCF Paris”.
On February 9, Guillaume T. was found dead, hanged in his room on the Nanterre campus (Hauts-de-Seine).
On behalf of her family, Me Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon had filed on February 18, 2021 “a complaint against X for intentional violence resulting in death without intention to give it”. The lawyer had chosen this criminal qualification, known as “death blows”, which required demonstrating a desire on the part of the accused to cause physical harm to the victim and that this harm be the direct cause of death.
She argued that “willful violence” could, according to her, have caused her action, implicitly attributing them to Mr. Cochard and the companion of the elected official, as “abuse of a sexual nature likely to be qualified as rape, which can constitute violence”.
An investigation was opened on March 22, 2021 and entrusted to the personal crime repression brigade.
Contacted, Me Tuaillon-Hibon did not wish to speak.
