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The former boss of an influential Parisian think-tank and friend of French President Emmanuel Macron went on trial Thursday for spiking a colleague’s glass of champagne with ecstasy.
Laurent Bigorgne stepped down as head of the centre-right Institut Montaigne think-tank in February after the colleague, who is also his former sister-in-law, accused him of lacing her drink before a dinner at his home.
Sophie Conrad, the younger sister of his ex-wife, believes 48-year-old Bigorgne planned to rape her, although the charge was not brought by prosecutors.
“Today I have no doubt about the fact that his intention (in drugging me) was sexual and to rape me,” she told the Paris court, adding that Bigorgne had been like a “big brother” to her.
The bespectacled former power broker, who had taken cocaine on the night in question on February 22, faces a charge of administering harmful substances, which carries a maximum five-year prison term.
“I never touched Sophie and I would never, never have abused her,” Bigorgne replied, adding that at the time he was consuming up to four grammes of cocaine a day.
He admitted to drugging her — calling it “an outrageous, odious and cowardly act” — but so that she would “understand” how his drug addiction had spun out of control.
When they first emerged, the accusations against Bigorgne sparked shock in the close-knit political and think-tank circles of Paris where he was known as a formidable networker close to the centre of power.
He was known to be on friendly terms with Macron, providing input to his successful 2017 presidential election.
His former wife lent Macron an apartment to help start his political party in 2016.
The fast-talking economist told Le Monde newspaper that after his resignation he had spent time in a psychiatric hospital and underwent treatment for cocaine use.
Conrad started to feel ill shortly after drinking the champagne at Bigorgne’s house, with a drugs test at a hospital later confirming she had consumed MDMA, an ecstasy derivative.
Her lawyer denounced the allegedly “privileged” treatment of Bigorgne by the justice system which she termed “patriarchal” for failing to charge him with a sexual offence.
The case follows a February 2021 scandal that rattled the Parisian elite after another political advisor and intellectual Olivier Duhamel was accused of rape and incest.
The allegations against Duhamel, levelled in a book by writer Camille Kouchner, led to another national reckoning with sexual abuse, three years after the #MeToo movement.
The prosecutor requested a suspended 18-month jail term for Bigorgne on Thursday and mandatory addiction treatment.
A verdict is expected on December 8.