The Sports ministry announced on Tuesday August 4, 2020 that the general inspection was made by the justice at the end of his mission to investigate the facts of violence in the middle of the skating, which has highlighted the suspicion weighing over twenty coaches. Among these 21 coaches, 12 are challenged to ” facts of sexual harassment or assault “, of which three have been sentenced in the past to prison farms or with suspended sentences. The other seven folders relate to ” physical violence or verbal “.
In the wake of the revelations of the former figure skater Sarah Abitbol, in his book, A long silence (Plon), which appeared at the end of January 2020, in which she accuses her former coach Gilles Beyer of raping her and sexually assaulted her several times between 1990 and 1992, the Sports ministry had commissioned a survey of the general Inspectorate of the education, sport and research (IGESR). At the end of this mission of inquiry, ” facts likely to receive a criminal offence having been reported by the mission, the head of the IGESR informed ministers that it transmitted the report to the prosecutor of the Republic near the court of Paris in accordance with article 40 of the Code of criminal procedure “, said the ministry of Sports.
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“Omerta”
” The volume of business has been identified, it is indicative of behaviours and practices are reproduced, which have gone through generations of coaches in the major disciplines of the FFSG that are the figure skating and ice dance. There is no equivalent at the international level “, underlines the ministry in its press release. “These different files have already resulted in two reports to the prosecutor of the Republic under article 40 of the Code of criminal procedure (February 2020), the pretrial detention of a coach (February 2020), and five administrative measures of prohibition to practise (April 2020) “, underlines the ministry. The investigative mission took the lid off the government operations marked by ” a strong concentration of powers, involving actually only a very few leaders, and technical managers “, who could not ” promote a form of omerta on the suspicions, which weighed against coaches and could lead to a lack of disciplinary procedures, or even simple surveys “.
In the wake of the revelations of Sarah Abitbol, president for more than 20 years of the French Federation of ice sports Didier Gailhaguet was forced to resign from his post in early February. Nathalie Péchalat, who was elected in mid-march at the head of the FFSG, was not the recipient of the report, which was handed to Didier Gailhaguet. Gilles Beyer makes, him, always the subject of an investigation by the prosecutor of Paris, for ” rape “. The FFSG was since under the threat of the withdrawal of the delegation of the ministry, ultimate weapon, which has not been advocated by the inspectors general in their report. A second part of the mission of inquiry of the IGESR ” will include, in the framework of the control requested, on the conditions under which the advisers of sports ministry of sports placed with the federation have exercised their functions “.
