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Sylvie Corbet
Updated ,first published
Paris: A former French senator has been found guilty in a high-profile drug-facilitated sexual assault case, more than a year after France was shaken by a mass rape trial that made Gisèle Pelicot a symbol of the fight against sexual violence.
Joël Guerriau, 68, stood trial for putting the drug commonly known as ecstasy into a glass of champagne he served to MP Sandrine Josso in November 2023. Guerriau has acknowledged serving her a drink containing MDMA but says it was an accident.
A Paris court on Tuesday sentenced him to 18 months in prison, an additional suspended sentence and a ban on holding elected office.
Josso, a centrist member of the National Assembly, told the court that the centre-right senator invited her to his Paris apartment for what she believed was a re-election celebration. The two had known each other for years and were on friendly terms.
She said she quickly began feeling unwell after drinking champagne, suffering heart palpitations and uncontrollable shaking.
“I really felt myself slipping away,” Josso testified, saying she felt uneasy being alone with Guerriau, who appeared unusually agitated and repeatedly turned the lights on and off.
Josso said Guerriau later took her glass into the kitchen to refill it. That’s when she noticed him holding “a little bag”, which made her realise she had likely been drugged.
“My legs were shaking, I was extremely thirsty,” she recalled, her voice breaking.
Josso said she tried to hide her symptoms, afraid to alert Guerriau. She eventually managed to leave and take a taxi.
“I think about my children, I call my colleague, I tell him that I’m going to die,” she told the court, crying.
Josso left the apartment, took a taxi and went to a hospital, where blood tests revealed a substantial quantity of MDMA – far higher than levels typically associated with recreational use.
“I want the truth to come out. It’s important to me,” Josso told the court.
She later took medical and psychological leave. When she returned to the National Assembly two months later, she publicly recounted the incident.
“I went to a friend’s house to celebrate his re-election. I came out terrified,” she told lawmakers. “I discovered an assailant. I then realised that I had been drugged without knowing it. That’s what we call drug-facilitated assault.”
‘Very serious mistake’
Guerriau told the court he made a “very serious” mistake that led him to serve Josso a drugged drink.
“I feel really sorry for Sandrine. That’s something I never wanted,” he said. “I hope one day she’ll forgive me.”
He said another senator had given him MDMA months earlier to help cope with depression and anxiety, though he refused to name the lawmaker.
Guerriau said he had put the white powder into a glass intended for himself the night before but did not use it, then mistakenly served the same glass to Josso the next day.
“Things happened very, very quickly. I did not think about it,” he said, acknowledging his “ignorance” about MDMA and what he called his “stupidity.”
Guerriau remained in the Senate for nearly two years after being charged despite calls for his resignation. He stepped down in October, presenting the move as political and unrelated to the case.
Investigators testified that Guerriau had searched online for information about drugs, including ecstasy, in connection with rape about a month before the incident. Guerriau said the research was part of his work as a senator.
“I never intended to commit an assault or harm Ms Josso. I am devastated,” he told the court on Tuesday.
Echoes of Pelicot trial
Less than a year after the senator’s case broke out, France was rocked by Gisèle Pelicot’s case, which put a worldwide spotlight on drug-facilitated sexual abuse.
Pelicot’s ex-husband and 50 other men were convicted of sexually assaulting her while she was under chemical submission between 2011 and 2020.
The harrowing and unprecedented trial exposed how pornography, chat rooms and men’s indifference to – or hazy understanding of – consent is fuelling rape culture.
However, even after the Pelicot trial, France is still just starting to reckon with such crimes.
Drugging a person to commit rape or sexual assault is punishable by up to five years in prison, compared to a maximum sentence of 10 years for drug possession.
Josso became a major figure in France’s fight against drug-related sexual assault, joining an association set up by Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian.
The lawmaker co-authored a parliamentary report about drug-facilitated sexual abuse that calls for “taking action against the scourge that was ignored for too long.”
The report noted a lack of statistics and information on the phenomenon in the country and stressed authorities’ failure to provide victims with efficient means to do blood and other analysis especially overnight and in remote areas.
In the wake of the Pelicot trial, France adopted a new law in October 2025 defining rape and other sexual assault as any non-consensual sexual act. Until then, rape was defined under French law as penetration or oral sex using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.
Increased awareness worldwide
In the United States, the Bill Cosby case that surfaced in 2014 raised public awareness about a pattern involving victims – mostly women – being offered pills or drinks, leading them to feel disoriented, semi-conscious or paralysed.
Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” was convicted of sexual assault and imprisoned. However, in 2021, Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out his conviction and ordered his release, in a stunning reversal of fortune. Cosby had previously been convicted of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004 at his home near Philadelphia.
Last month, British authorities charged a man with repeatedly drugging and raping a woman who is now his ex-wife. Five other men have been charged with sexual offences against the same woman.
Philip Young, 49, has been charged with 56 offences over a 13-year period, including multiple counts of rape and administering a substance with intent to “stupefy” Joanne Young, 48, between 2010 and 2023, the Crown Prosecution Service and Wiltshire Police said.
AP
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