Overview
- Paris judges found Joël Guerriau guilty of administering a judgment‑altering substance with intent to commit sexual assault after spiking MP Sandrine Josso’s champagne with MDMA in 2023.
- He was sentenced to four years in prison with two and a half years suspended, and the court ordered deferred detention, meaning he does not enter custody while he challenges the verdict.
- The court said intent was established by the unusually high MDMA dose detected, his insistence that she drink, his inappropriate behavior, and browser searches about drugs and rape.
- Guerriau was also convicted of possessing and using ecstasy, ordered to undergo psychological or psychiatric treatment, barred from contacting Josso, and told to pay damages.
- His lawyer said he will appeal as Guerriau maintains the drugging was accidental during a period of distress, a case that has amplified France’s focus on drug‑facilitated sexual violence after the Pelicot scandal.