French mayor charged over suspected sex tape bribery of rival

French mayor charged over suspected sex tape bribery of rival after ‘paying £43,000 for video of him giving a male prostitute an erotic massage’

• Perdriau has been charged with bribery for allegedly manipulating an opponent
• Antigues was filmed receiving a massage in 2015, reportedly on a hidden camera

A French mayor has been charged over allegedly trying to bribe a political rival with a video of him being massaged by a male escort in a Paris hotel. 

Gaël Perdriau, a 50-year-old conservative who runs Saint-Etienne, is suspected of using the secret recording to manipulate his centrist rival and one-time deputy, Gilles Artigues, over a period of eight years.

He is accused of using 50,000 euros (£43,000) of public funds to pay for the footage, which was filmed in 2015.

After nearly two days in police custody, Perdriau – who protests his innocence – was charged on Thursday evening, a statement from the local prosecutor’s office said.

‘A decisive stage has passed which demonstrates that Gilles Artigues has been a victim of organised bribery, which is what he said from the beginning,’ Artigues’ lawyer Andre Buffard told AFP.

‘We can’t pre-judge who ordered it, but there are serious and corroborated indications pointing to the mayor of Saint-Etienne,’ he added.

Gael Perdriau, Mayor Les Republicains of Saint-Etienne, was charged with bribery on Thursday

The scandal in the former mining town, which is home to around 400,000 people, erupted in August last year when a whistle-blower told investigative news organisation Mediapart about the existence of the video.

Mr Rossary-Lenglet, former partner of Deputy Mayor Semy Kéfi-Jérôme, claimed the video was ordered by Perdriau and his chief of staff, Pierre Gauttieri.

Perdriau admits having knowledge about the video. 

The footage of Artigues, a married father of four and practising Catholic known for his conservative views, was shot in 2015, allegedly on a hidden GoPro camera which belonged to the council.

Artigues claims that he was drugged. He says that Kéfi-Jérôme offered him a drink after he was invited to a hotel room.

He said that he became aware of the tape 18 months after it was filmed. He filed a complaint for ‘aggravated blackmail’ in late August 2022.

In an apparent recording of a conversation in the mayor’s office in 2017 published by Mediapart, Perdriau can be heard threatening Artigues over the video while his chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri says ‘your children will never recover’.

The Mediapart report claims that in one meeting, Gauttieri warns Artigues: ‘I’ve got a video showing your bum in the air with a bloke. Doesn’t that worry you?’

Gauttieri and Kéfi-Jérôme were also charged on Thursday.

Gilles Artigues (left) was reportedly the victim of a bribery plot by Perdriau and allies 

Whistle-blower Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, who admitted to taking part in the plot to Mediapart, was charged with complicity in bribery, which was condemned by his lawyer.

Perdriau has been expelled from the right-wing Republicans party to which he belonged, but has refused to step down as mayor and continues to protest his innocence.

‘I am not the instigator, the organiser or a user of this video,’ he told AFP in December. ‘I have never had or seen this document.’

Perdriau has been mayor of the town since 2014 and was re-elected in 2020.

The party said in a statement: ‘While it is up to justice to decide on guilt and Mr Perdriau’s involvement, the Republicans can only condemn the abominable methods used by the mayor of Saint Etienne.’ 

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