French hypnotherapist goes on trial for drug-facilitated rape: 'If I had been believed, he would not have destroyed the lives of other women'

SÉVERIN MILLET

They had been his friends, sometimes his partners, and almost all had attended the same dance school for couples in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, where he was a popular rock dance teacher. Fourteen women allegedly sedated by a powerful drug mixed into a glass of wine, a cocktail or even a raspberry tart, then undressed, raped while semi-conscious and, for some, filmed, are set to confront amateur hypnotherapist Cyril Z. from the plaintiff bench on Monday, January 5. Labeled a serial rapist by the victims' lawyers, the 47-year-old man stands accused of drug-facilitated rapes committed over a long period, from July 2010 to March 2021.

While he is on trial for the aggravated rape of these 14 young women, the investigation also identified two other victims, one of whom is the defendant's cousin, who filed complaints against him in May 2003. These charges could not be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations. One of the two women, now only a witness, has found this impossible to accept. "He destroyed my life, and if I had been believed [in 2003], he would not have destroyed the lives of other girls," she told the investigating judge in June 2024. "What is also hard is being considered a witness when I am a victim of what happened."