The director of the Hauts-de-Seine Mastery, targeted by five complaints, placed “in withdrawal”

The director of the Hauts-de-Seine Maîtrise, Gaël Darchen, contests the accusations of moral and sexual harassment and sexual assault against him, his lawyers announced on Friday evening. “He strongly denies all of these accusations and is deeply shocked by the media coverage of this affair.”affirm Mes Marie Fréret and Claire Abello in a letter sent to AFP. “He denounces these attacks on his presumption of innocence and remains at the disposal of investigators, to whom he reserves his statements in order to shed full light on these allegations.”add the councils.

Gaël Darchen, 54, director of the structure since 1999, is being accused by five women who are reporting acts of moral and sexual harassment, and sexual assault for one of them, according to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, which has opened an investigation entrusted to the Brigade for the Repression of Crime against Persons (BRDP). These denunciations were made public on Tuesday in articles by Radio France and the Chained Duckwho claim that the complainants were all adults at the time of the alleged facts. Gaël Darchen’s lawyers claim that their client has taken note of these complaints “only through the press”.

On Thursday, Michel Haas, the president of the Maîtrise, asked his director to step aside. “Gaël Darchen is currently on tour in Greece with a group of masters students. I asked him to return to Paris and temporarily step back.”explained Michel Haas to the parents of students in a letter. Created in 1985, the Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine brings together 650 singers aged five to 30, divided into 12 ensembles, and performs in France and abroad. Supported by the Hauts-de-Seine department, it has been the children’s choir of the Paris National Opera since 1995. Since 2017, the Maîtrise has been based at the Seine Musicale, a cultural complex on Seguin Island in Boulogne-Billancourt.