French police kept singer and actor Patrick Bruel in custody for a second day running on Tuesday, prosecutors said, as allegations of sexual abuse mounted against one of the country’s highest-profile figures to be targeted in the #MeToo movement.
He is the latest in a string of French celebrities to face sexual assault claims.
Film legend Gerard Depardieu was handed a suspended 18-month prison sentence last year for sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021. He has also rejected the accusations.
Bruel, a heartthrob whose face was plastered on teen magazines in the early 1990s, was detained on Monday to answer questions about 13 allegations of sexual assault and abuse, the prosecutor’s office in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre said.
It said he was still in custody on Tuesday.
Lawyer Myriam Guedj Benayoun on Tuesday said a new complaint would soon be filed against the singer for the alleged attempted rape of a 19 year old at his home in 2000.
Another lawyer, Corinne Herrmann, said two new complaints for rape would be filed in the coming days.
Herrmann told AFP on Monday two women had filed new rape complaints against him on May 27 and June 3.
Investigative news outlet Mediapart said the women were a former beauty queen who accuses Bruel of raping her in 2008 and a physiotherapist who alleged he committed rape in 2000.
