Investigators have identified 248 potential victims, with 180 women formally joining the case as civil parties, in a sprawling French criminal investigation involving Christian Nègre, a former senior civil servant accused of secretly drugging women with diuretics during job interviews and professional meetings between 2009 and 2018, according to the New York Times.
Many women reportedly say they were lured by what appeared to be legitimate career opportunities, only to suffer sudden and overwhelming physical distress that left them confused and humiliated.
About a decade ago, Marie-Hélène Brice, then an unemployed mother of two, attended a job interview with Christian Nègre, a senior civil servant in eastern . According to Brice, Nègre suggested continuing the interview outdoors. During the walk, she experienced an urgent need to urinate that was “so sudden, so searing, so terrible” that she could not control it. She said the pain felt like labour.
“Even after literally soaking my dress, I still had bladder pain and needed to urinate,” said Brice, now 39.
Two years later, informed her that they were investigating allegations that Nègre had secretly added diuretics to drinks offered to more than 100 women during job interviews between 2009 and 2018. Diuretics are medications commonly used to treat high blood pressure and can cause a sharp increase in urine production.
Who is Christian Nègre?
Christian Nègre built a long career in France’s civil service and joined the Ministry of Culture in 2010. He initially served as the ministry’s human resources director at its Paris headquarters and, in 2016, was appointed to another senior administrative role at the ministry’s regional office in eastern France, as per the report.
Nègre was dismissed from his position at the Ministry of Culture in October 2018. A few months later, prosecutors placed him under formal investigation on charges including administering harmful substances, assault by a public official, invasion of privacy, and sexual assault for alleged acts said to have occurred between 2009 and 2018.
Authorities first became aware of allegations against Nègre in 2018, when he was accused of secretly photographing a woman’s legs beneath a table during a meeting. According to testimony from former colleagues presented in court in a case brought against the French state, his behavior was so well known within the ministry that coworkers had given him the nickname “the photographer.”
According to prosecutors, investigators later searched Nègre’s electronic devices and discovered a spreadsheet containing details of 181 women whom he appeared to have met for interviews and allegedly drugged, the report noted.
The complainants’ anger grew in October after a French newspaper reported that Christian Nègre had continued working under a different identity, teaching human resources at universities and operating as a consultant in another region of France.
In a 2019 interview with a French national newspaper, Nègre acknowledged that he had drugged “10 or 20” women in , though he did not identify the individuals and has not made any public statements since. His lawyer, Vanessa Stein, said he was not commenting due to the continuing police investigation, reported the NYT.
Although the criminal case has not yet gone to trial, it has started to attract increasing attention in public debate in France.
Meanwhile, Laure Beccuau, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation, did not respond to NYT’s requests for comment. Her office, in a public statement issued in February, stated it was coordinating with several law enforcement agencies with the aim of completing the investigation by the end of the year.
