Get you up to speed: Christian Nègre accused of drugging women during job interviews in France

What we know so far

French civil servant ‘drugged women on job interviews so they wet themselves’ | News World

Christian Nègre is accused of spiking 248 women with a powerful diuretic (Picture: X)

Women have described wetting themselves and being forced to urinate into a river after allegedly being drugged on job interviews.

Christian Nègre, a former human resources director and civil servant at France’s culture ministry is accused of spiking 248 women with a powerful diuretic between 2009 and 2018.

The official allegedly laced the coffee and teas of victims before taking them on ‘walking interviews’ around Paris, during which the women would suddenly need the toilet.

He took secret pictures of the women interviewees and recorded details of the encounters on an Excel spreadsheet titled ‘experiments’.

Nicknamed the photographer, Nègre was only caught when a collleague saw him photographing a female official’s legs in their office in 2018.

That led police to a trove of files of the women and he was charged with administering harmful substances without consent.

The civil servant remains free seven years after a probe was opened in 2019, as the judicial process has faced delays.

The alleged victims now only have a month to submit their testimonies before the inquiry is closed.

An alleged victim described having to relieve herself by the Seine due to the overwhelming urge to urinate during the interview (Picture: Getty Images)

One woman, Marie-Hélène Brice, described how she thought she was getting her life back on track when she was offered a job interview with Nègre in 2016.

She told The Telegraph that soon after the pair began walking she was suddenly left in agony by the urge to urinate.

Ms Brice was forced to urinate into a river, with the civil servant covering her with a jacket, while Nègre looked her in the eyes.

She added: ‘It was a double shock. First, you think it’s your fault. Then you discover you were poisoned.’

Another woman, Anaïs de Vos, alleged she was given a drink before being taken on a walk through the Tuileries Gardens towards the Louvre in Paris in 2011.

‘I realised something was wrong when he suggested I relieve myself under a bridge,’ she said. 

‘I thought: If I go in there, he might attack me.’

She refused but eventually had to rush to an upstairs cafe toilet near the Louvre, urinating herself on the way.

Eight years later, police read details of her from Nègre’s Excel file, recounting how she ‘still had to hold on’, ‘moaned’ and ‘disappeared for 15 minutes’.

Another alleged victim, Elise Daniaud Oudeh, says she had to relieve herself near the Seine after meeting Nègre.

She said: ‘I thought it was my fault. I never imagined someone could put something in my drink at a ministry.’

Ms Oudeh continued: ‘We still think that rape, rapists and paedophiles are actually exceptions, they’re monsters… No, they are integrated people who have children, who are married, who work, and they are at all social levels.’

The legal case against Nègre has dragged on since 2019 (Picture: Shutterstock / Cineberg)

Another victim described having nightmares after she was allegedly drugged, adding: ‘When I go to the toilet, it brings everything back.’

She was so humiliated she stopped applying for jobs and her unemployment benefits ran out.

Louise Beriot, a lawyer for several of the women, said of the alleged druggings: ‘Under the pretext of a sexual fantasy, this is about power and domination over women’s bodies… through humiliation and control.’ 

Nègre has not publicly apologised to the women.

The Telegraph reports that when he was first contacted about the allegations in 2019, he acknowledged administering diuretics and taking some photographs, but minimised his conduct and the number of victims.

After he left the civil service, worked at a business school in Caen under a different surname.

His identity was discovered by students and he was dismissed.

In 2023, the French state was ordered to pay up to £14,000 to seven alleged victims in a civil case.

However the culture ministry was found not to be at fault as an employer.

Comment now

Comments

Add WTX News as a Preferred Source on Google

Add as preferred source

Breaking News

Never miss the biggest stories with breaking news alerts in your inbox.