The skater Sarah Abitbol accused her of rape and repeated sexual assault when she was between 15 and 17 years old. He had been indicted in January 2021 for alleged more recent facts.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
The former artistic skating coach Gilles Beyer, accused of rapes and sexual assault by several women, including the multimedillée Sarah Abitbol skater, died at the age of 66, learned the France-Presse agency (AFP), Saturday January 21, with his lawyer, Thibault de Montbrial, confirming information from the obs .
Gilles Beyer, who was “very sick”, according to his lawyer, was at the center of a resounding scandal of sexual violence in figure skating.
In the book Une Long Silence (Plon), published in January 2020, the former Champion of Artistic skating Sarah Abitbol accused her ex-coach of rape and repeated sexual assault when she had between 15 and 17 years old, in the early 1990s. However, she had not filed a complaint, due to the prescription of the facts.
In a written declaration to AFP, Gilles Beyer had recognized “inappropriate intimate relations” with Sarah Abitbol, apologizing “.
” He leaves before being tried ”
After these revelations, he had been indicted in January 2021 for “sexual assault by person having authority” and “sexual harassment by person having authority”, and placed under judicial supervision for more recent facts.
“I am in shock,” reacted Sarah Abitbol to L’Obs. “He leaves before being tried, I would have liked there to be a trial,” she regretted. His death leads to the closure of the judicial information “by extinction of public action,” said Gilles Beyer’s lawyer. “It’s crazy, this death arrives just a week before my show, where I evoke this trauma, the release of my word, my rebirth, and my return to the ice … God decided so,” said Sarah also ABITBOL.
Sarah Abitbol’s book had resulted in other revelations. Several skaters had borne accusations of sexual assault, sexual harassment or blackmail targeting Gilles Beyer or other coaches or former skating coaches.
Didier Gailhaguet, president for twenty years of the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG), had been forced – after a long showdown – to resign in early February 2020. An administrative investigation then put in evidence of suspicions weighing on twenty -one coaches of the FFSG.
“Many false things have been said and written on [Gilles Beyer] and I would have liked him to have the opportunity to speak publicly,” said his lawyer on Saturday.