The singer, whose real name is Antoine Valentinelli, was accused on Tuesday May 21 by a new young woman of rape. The events allegedly took place in January 2017.
“I woke up with a start, he was behind me and trying to sodomize me”. This is what the third woman filing a rape complaint against rapper Lomepal told Médiapart. Two people have already filed charges of rape against the singer in 2020 and 2023, including a victim whose acts allegedly took place in New York. According to the testimony of the new complainant, the facts took place in January 2017 at the singer’s mother in the south of Paris.
The young woman, now 33, explains: “A few years ago, I told myself that there would be no point in filing a complaint, that nothing would change. Now, when I see all these women talking, I tell myself that I don’t see why I would continue to protect him.” She reports having said «non», «stop» et “stopped” before launching “What is it that you don’t understand when someone tells you no?”. To which he would have replied: “We know very well what it means when you say no.” The 32-year-old rapper refutes all violence and coercion, declaring: “I would never even imagine doing that to someone who was asleep.”
Judicial investigation in progress
On February 27, Lomepal was briefly placed in police custody. He had been confronted with the first two complainants, and following this interview the police custody measure had been lifted for “continuation of preliminary investigations” had indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office. The investigations were launched after the filing, in 2020, of a complaint from an acquaintance of the rapper, who accused him of having raped her in 2017 in New York.
Many women spoke out on social networks in 2023 to denounce the singer’s inappropriate behavior. Among them, there was the singer and editor-in-chief of Joly Môme, Jenna Boulmedaïs. She made public the testimonies against the artist in the French musical world: “It has now been two years since I have heard, in the music world, testimonies from women who have suffered the inappropriate and unwanted actions of Antoine Lomepal. The whole music industry knows about it. This silence is literally no longer possible.” The French Music Federation had filed a complaint against the singer.