Former French senator guilty of drugging MP with MDMA
Sylvie Corbet
Updated ,first published
Paris: A former French senator has been convicted in a high-profile case of drug-facilitated sexual assault, more than a year after France was rocked by the gang rape case of Gisèle Pelicot that made her a symbol of the fight against sexual violence.
Joël Guerriau, 68, was prosecuted for putting the drug commonly known as ecstasy in a glass of champagne he served to MP Sandrine Josso in November 2023. Guerriau admitted offering him a drink containing MDMA, but said it was an accident.
On Tuesday, a Paris court sentenced him to 18 months in prison, plus a suspended sentence and a ban on holding elected office.
Josso, a centrist member of the National Assembly, told the court that the centre-right senator had invited him to his apartment in Paris for what he believed was a re-election celebration. The two had known each other for years and were on good terms.
He said that after drinking champagne, he quickly began to feel unwell, experiencing heart palpitations and uncontrollable tremors.
“I really felt like I was slipping away,” Josso testified, adding that he was uncomfortable being alone with Guerriau, who appeared unusually agitated and kept turning the lights on and off repeatedly.
Josso said Guerriau then took his glass to the kitchen to refill it. That’s when he noticed she was holding a “little bag,” which made him realize she was probably drugged.
“My legs were shaking, I was extremely thirsty,” he recalled, his voice breaking.
Josso said he tried to hide his symptoms because he was afraid of alerting Guerriau. He finally managed to leave and get into a taxi.
The woman, crying in court, said, “I think about my children, I call my colleague, I tell him that I am going to die.”
Josso left the apartment, took a taxi and went to the hospital; blood tests there revealed significant amounts of MDMA; this was much higher than levels typically associated with recreational use.
“I want the truth to come out. This is important to me,” Josso said in court.
He later took medical and psychological leave. When he returned to the National Assembly two months later, he told the public about the incident.
“I went to a friend’s house to celebrate his re-election. I walked out terrified,” he told MPs. “I discovered an attacker. Then I realized I had been drugged without my knowledge. We call this a drug-facilitated assault.”
‘A very serious mistake’
Guerriau told the court he made a “very serious” mistake that led to him offering Josso a drugged drink.
“I really feel sorry for Sandrine. This is something I never wanted,” he said. “I hope he forgives me one day.”
He said another senator gave him MDMA months ago to help him cope with depression and anxiety, but he declined to name the lawmaker.
Guerriau said that he put the white powder in the glass he had prepared for himself the night before but did not use it, and then accidentally served the same glass to Josso the next day.
“It all happened very, very quickly. I didn’t think about it,” he said, admitting his “ignorance” and what he called his “stupidity” about MDMA.
Guerriau remained in the Senate for nearly two years after being impeached, despite calls to resign. He resigned in October, claiming the move was political and unrelated to the case.
Investigators testified that Guerriau searched the Internet for information about drugs, including ecstasy, in connection with the rape about a month before the incident. Guerriau said the research was part of his job as a senator.
“I never planned to commit an attack or harm Ms. Josso. I am devastated,” he told the court on Tuesday.
Echoes of the Pelicot case
Less than a year after the senator’s trial broke, France was rocked by the trial of Gisèle Pelicot, which shed a global light on drug-facilitated sexual abuse.
Pelicot’s ex-husband and 50 other men were convicted of sexually assaulting her between 2011 and 2020 while she was exposed to chemicals.
The harrowing and unprecedented case revealed how pornography, chat rooms and men’s indifference or vague understanding of consent are fueling rape culture.
But even after the Pelicot case, France is only just beginning to reckon with such crimes.
Drugging a person to commit rape or sexual assault is punishable by up to five years in prison, compared to the maximum 10-year prison sentence for drug possession.
Josso became a key figure in France’s fight against drug-related sexual assault by joining an association founded by Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian.
The MP co-authored a parliamentary report on drug-facilitated sexual abuse that called for “action against the scourge that has been ignored for too long”.
The report highlighted the country’s lack of statistics and information on this phenomenon and the failure of authorities to provide victims with effective tools to conduct blood and other analysis, especially overnight and in remote areas.
Following the Pelicot case, France passed a new law in October 2025 that defines rape and other sexual assault as any sexual act without consent. Until then, rape in French law was defined as penetration or oral sex using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.”
Increasing awareness worldwide
The Bill Cosby case, which emerged in the United States in 2014, raised public awareness of a pattern of offering pills or drinks to victims (mostly women), leaving them feeling confused, semi-conscious or paralyzed.
Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” was convicted of sexual assault and imprisoned. But in 2021, in a surprising reversal of fate, Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out his conviction and ordered his release. Cosby was previously convicted of drugging and abusing a woman at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.
Last month, British authorities accused a man of repeatedly drugging and raping a woman who is now his ex-wife. Five more men were charged with sexual offenses against the same woman.
The Crown Prosecution Service and Wiltshire Police said Philip Young, 49, was charged with 56 offenses over a 13-year period, including multiple rapes and administering substances to Joanne Young, 48, between 2010 and 2023, with the intent to “stupid” Joanne Young, 48.
access point
