Overview
- The three-day hearing before the Meurthe-et-Moselle criminal court began on 1 December, with Baptiste Valette facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
- Prosecutors allege the former AS Nancy goalkeeper, now 33 and contracted to RC Pays de Grasse, assaulted an 18-year-old near the Arq nightclub around 4:20 a.m. on 15 December 2019 after her ex-boyfriend alerted police.
- The complainant says she resisted and told the man no several times, while Valette insists the encounter was consensual and characterizes it as a misunderstanding without criminal intent.
- Court-appointed experts concluded two years after the incident that the complainant remained in post-traumatic stress disorder.
- On the first day of testimony, Valette’s wife affirmed her belief in his innocence, and a friend who spent the evening with the complainant revised her account in a way Le Parisien reported as weakening the accusation.