Six women accuse French ex-model boss of rape, human trafficking

PARIS: Six foreign women, mostly American, filed legal complaints in France Wednesday accusing ex-modelling agency boss Gerald Marie of rape and human trafficking in the 1980s and 1990s, their lawyer said.

They are the latest allegations against the former European head of Elite, a modelling agency known for managing supermodels Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford. The women — now in their mid-forties to sixties — include two who are accusing him for the first time, lawyer Mathias Darmon said. One of them has accused Marie, now in his mid-70s, of abusing her when she was a minor, he added.

Wednesday’s complaints, seen by AFP, highlight similarities between the accusations of the six plaintiffs.

“Marie, then head of an international modelling agency with a major presence in Paris, is alleged to have, over several decades, used the authority, influence, and power conferred on him by his role to obtain forced sexual relations with numerous young women, some of whom were underage,” it said.