French former senator found guilty of drugging MP with intent to sexually assault her | France
A court in France found a former senator guilty of giving ecstasy to a female MP for the purpose of sexually assaulting her.
Joël Guerriau, 68, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison, including 18 months behind bars.
The former senator’s high-profile trial came months after France was stunned by a case in which Frenchman Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison for repeatedly drugging his then-wife so he and dozens of strangers could rape her.
National Assembly MP Sandrine Josso said shortly after Tuesday’s ruling that it was a “huge relief”. Guerriau’s lawyers said they would appeal.
French prosecutors had asked for a 4-year prison sentence for the former senator, who described the drugging of his friend of 10 years in November 2023 as an accident and called himself an “idiot”.
Guerriau, who denied any sexual motivation towards Josso, resigned from the upper house in October. He was soon expelled from the centre-right Horizons party.
On Monday, a visibly distressed Josso, 50, said he thought he was going to die after going to see Guerriau at his flat in the French capital’s stylish 6th arrondissement.
He told the Paris court that he went to see Guerriau “with peace of mind to celebrate his re-election. As the evening progressed, I discovered an attacker.”
She was the only guest at his Paris home that evening, and after pouring him a glass of champagne in the kitchen, he noticed it tasted sweet and sticky.
“I thought it might have been bad champagne. Then he insisted we toast again. I found that strange,” he told the court.
Josso said he soon felt unwell, his heart rate accelerated, and he quickly left before going to the hospital.
The toxicology report revealed a high dose of medication in his blood. Ecstasy was also found in Guerriau’s home.
His lawyer, Arnaud Godefroy, said the MP was struggling with the consequences of what happened to him.
Godefroy said Josso took six months off work while he underwent “physical therapy, psychological and psychiatric monitoring, nightmares, flashbacks and dissociation.”
Josso said he had to have four teeth removed due to stress, which caused him to grind his teeth.
Guerriau said that the day before their celebration, she poured powdered ecstasy into a glass to calm a panic attack, but then decided not to take it and put the glass back in the cupboard.
“In short, I’m an idiot,” he concluded.
Earlier Tuesday, prosecutor Benjamin Coulon argued that Guerriau “deliberately put MDMA” in Josso’s champagne and requested that he be barred from public office for five years.
He also requested that the former senator be placed on the sex offender registry in addition to his prison sentence.
Guerriau, who served as a senator from 2011 to 2025, voted for legislation that created the crime of administering a harmful substance with intent to rape or sexual assault, Coulon said.
The prosecutor emphasized that Guerriau had a duty as an elected official to “set an example.”
But he also said Guerriau had no criminal record and “dedicated part of his life to the functioning of French democracy.”
Coulon argued that the centrist politician “did not act according to his intentions, made no gestures towards Ms. Josso, but drugged her with the intention of raping her.”
If she drugged him, ironically “to steal his wallet?” he said.
Henri Carpentier, one of the politician’s lawyers, said that as soon as the case emerged, “the emotions were unanimous, the disgust was legitimate.”
“Emotion is a bad advisor, it erases all the nuances,” he warned.
Last year, France adopted the principle of consent to define the crime of rape, following other European countries such as the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
