Hundreds of women accuse French civil servant of drugging them in decade-long ‘chemical submission’ scandal
The alleged victims of a civil servant accused of drugging hundreds of women to make them urinate have spoken out about their ordeals as they fight for justice.
Authorities say Christian Negre spiked the drinks of nearly 250 victims in France between 2009 and 2018 with a diuretic, in a method known as chemical submission.
He was suspended from his job at the Ministry of Culture in 2019 and is now under formal investigation on charges that include drugging, invasion of privacy and sexual assault. A trial date is yet to be set for the case.
Alarms were raised in 2018 when a colleague caught him taking pictures of a woman underneath a table, according to a prosecutor’s statement released earlier this year. He told prosecutors that he had “imposed humiliating situations on women” in job interviews.
One of the women, 27 years old at the time of her suspected drugging, was contacted by police after her name was found on a spreadsheet titled “Experiments P” in Negre’s house with a list of alleged victims.
Anaïs de Vos met Negre in 2011 when she was interviewing for a job at the ministry. He asked her to go for a coffee instead, which she agreed to out of politeness, she told BBC Global Women.
She recalls that the drink “tasted bad” and left her with an uncontrollable urge to urinate so she suggested going back to the building.
“He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Oh, do you need a wee?’” Vos said.
“I felt like a child. I thought it was really weird the way he looked at me, almost gleeful.”
”I was really weak. I couldn’t really feel my legs any more. I was scared. I didn’t know what was happening.”
Vos claims Negre told her to use a storage cupboard under a bridge and said: “You can do it here”. She says that the incident has had a lasting impact on her leading her to pursue a less ambitious career path.
Marie-Hélène Brice said she had a similar experience when she interviewed for a job in 2016 and ended up on a walk along the canal with Negre to “calm her nerves”.
“I was really starting to suffer… pains to the point that I was white, pale, I had tears streaming down,” Brice told the BBC, adding that she was forced to urinate in public with Negre offering to shield her with his jacket.
“I was terribly embarrassed. He didn’t take his eyes off me.” She felt ashamed about the ordeal for years before she was also contacted by police as a suspected victim.
