French ex-modeling boss accused of raping minors
Several women have accused Gerald Marie, the former head of Elite Model Management's European operations, of rape and human trafficking in a criminal complaint filed in France. At least one of the plaintiffs alleges she was sexually abused while still a minor.
Marie, whose agency represented some of the world's biggest supermodels, including Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, and Cindy Crawford, has faced similar accusations from more than a dozen women over the past several years. French prosecutors previously investigated the claims but closed the case in 2023 because the alleged offenses, dating largely to the 1980s and early 1990s, fell outside the statute of limitations. Marie has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Six women, most of them Americans, filed the latest complaint on Wednesday, according to their lawyer, Mathias Darmon. Two are accusing Marie publicly for the first time, including one who alleges she was underage when she was assaulted.
The complaint alleges that Marie, while running one of the world's leading modeling agencies in Paris, “used the authority, influence and power conferred on him by his position to obtain forced sexual relations with numerous young women, some of whom were underage,” according to excerpts published by Le Monde and AFP.
Responding to the new filing, Marie's lawyer, Celine Bekerman, said that there was “no reason whatsoever to call on the courts to again revisit a case that is both time-barred and closed, nearly 40 years after the alleged events.”
Last month, former supermodel Carre Otis filed a separate complaint in Paris accusing Marie of repeatedly raping her when she was 17 and trafficking her to wealthy men in Europe. Otis first made the allegations in her 2011 memoir Beauty, Disrupted.
Earlier this year, 14 women, including former BBC journalist Lisa Brinkworth, also urged French authorities to investigate Marie over alleged links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In 2020, dozens of former models from the US, Canada, and Sweden told The Guardian that they had been sexually assaulted after Marie invited them to private meetings at his apartments in the 1980s. Several said they did not come forward earlier because they feared it would end their modeling careers, while others accused him of exploiting their youth and poor command of French.
