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French Olympic swimming champion arrested in teenage rape case
12 Dec, 2021 13:45
Double Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel has been arrested in connection with the alleged rape and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl.
Agnel won gold medals in the 200-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter freestyle relay for France at the London 2012 summer Games.
As reported by the AFP, he was arrested in Paris on Thursday and taken into police custody in Mulhouse, which is five hours southeast of the capital close to the borders with Germany and Switzerland.
Prosecutor Edwige Roux-Morizot said that a complaint was filed for incidents that allegedly occurred "around 2016", and included "rape and sexual assault on a 15-year-old minor".
The victim is also a swimmer and trained with Agnel at the swimming club in Mulhouse from 2014 and 2016.
According to L'Equipe, several swimming colleagues were interviewed by police over the past few weeks before an arrest was made. Furthermore, the swimming club has monetary disputes with some of them who have left the institution.
Agnel, who has already been in court to collect €60,000 ($68,000) for the final year of his contract with an appeal against the ruling his favor set for March, is among their number.
MON, which is famous for once being the home of French Minister of Sports and 2000 Olympic backstroke silver medalist Roxana Maracineanu, is also being investigated for "attempted fraud" in events dating back to 2016.
Agnel was apprehended at his Paris home on Thursday, with his custody extended Friday morning.
According to Le Parisien, he has a "Garde à Vue" status of pre-trial detention which lasts up to 24 hours, but this can be extended to up to 48 hours by prosecutors.
After this time is up, Agnel can be released without any charges, released and given a court date, or, in the most serious cases, remain behind bars until a trial as seen in the UK with his compatriot Benjamin Mendy.
Before his arrest, Agnel had been working as a columnist and podcaster on E-Sports at France Info, who have suspended his contract.
Agnel announced his retirement from swimming after failing to defend his 200m freestyle title at Rio 2016 and advance through the heats.
In addition to winning gold twice at the Olympics, he is a 2010 gold medalist in the 400-meter event at the European championships, and won two golds again in the 200-meter freestyle and the 4x100-meter freestyle at the 2013 world championships.
Sex and the City star Chris Noth is accused of RAPE
and sexual assault by TWO women
One of whom claims she needed stitches after 2004 assault
By JUSTIN ENRIQUEZ and CHARLIE LANKSTON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:29 EST, 16 December 2021
Caution: Graphic details follow.
Sex And The City star Chris Noth has been accused of sexual assault by two women - one of whom claims she needed stitches after he raped her in his apartment in 2004, when he was 49 and she was just 22.
Allegations against the American actor, now 67, were detailed in a new report from The Hollywood Reporter published on Thursday.
According to the publication, Noth's two accusers - who do not know one another - approached THR separately and months apart with their allegations against the actor, who has vehemently denied the accusations.
Both of the women, who used the pseudonyms Zoe, now 40, and Lily, now 31, claim that Noth had sex with them from behind in front of a mirror, with the first attack allegedly taking place in 2004, while the second reportedly occurred in 2015, three years after Noth married his wife, Tara Wilson, with whom he has two children.
The two women both also allege that the attacks took place in one of Noth's homes - the first in his Los Angeles apartment and the second in his New York City property - after the actor invited them over.
The first, Zoe, said she visited the actor's home in West Hollywood to return a book that he had lent her, while the second stated that she went back to Noth's apartment in Greenwich Village after a date, when he invited her to sample 'his collection of whiskeys'.
Both women claim that the recent publicity surrounding the Sex and the City reboot - And Just Like That - 'stirred painful memories' of their encounters with Noth, who has featured heavily in the news in the past week as a result of the shock death of his character, Mr Big, in the first episode of the new series.
Allegations: Married Sex And The City star Chris Noth - pictured with his wife Tara Wilson this month - has been accused of rape and sexual assault by two women
Noth's first accuser - Zoe, now 40 - claims that the actor invited her to his Los Angeles apartment to return a book in 2004, before raping her from behind.
She claims that he 'kissed her as she stepped through the door' and that she 'tentatively kissed him back' before trying to leave his home.
Zoe alleges that the actor then 'pulled her toward him, moved her toward the bed, pulled off her shorts and bikini bottom, and began to rape her from behind' while they were 'facing a mirror'.
'It was very painful and I yelled out, "Stop!"' she claims. 'And he didn’t. I said, "Can you at least get a condom?" and he laughed at me.'
Following the alleged incident, Zoe says she saw 'blood on her shirt' and returned to a friend's apartment, which was located in the same building as Noth's home, to try and wash it out.
It was there that her friends urged her to go to hospital - where she says she had to get stitches.
'I had stitches. Two police officers came. I wouldn’t say who it was,' she says, claiming that she feared she would 'not be believed' and could 'be fired' if she publicly accused Noth of rape.
'I was crying as it happened': Actor's alleged second victim claims he raped her in his New York apartment
The second accuser - a woman using the pseudonym Lily, now 31 - alleges that Noth assaulted her in his apartment in Greenwich Village in 2015 after he invited her on a date at Italian restaurant Il Cantinori.
According to Lily, the kitchen at the restaurant had closed by the time they arrived, so they drank wine together at the bar. She claims that she 'had too much to drink' but was 'nowhere near blacking out' when Noth suggested that they go back to his home to 'sample his collection of whiskeys'.
She says they spent time 'listening to music' and discussing his collection of 'books about art and fashion', before he 'tried to make out with her'.
Lily says she 'cautiously entertained' him, but that he became more forceful as time went on.
'He kept trying and trying and trying, and I should have said no more firmly and left. And then the next thing I knew, he pulled down his pants and he was standing in front of me,' she says, alleging that he then 'thrust his penis into her mouth'.
She claims that Noth - who was married to wife Tara Wilson and had one child with her at the time - told her 'marriage is a sham' and that 'monogamy is not real', before raping her.
'[Suddenly] he was having sex with me from the back in a chair,' she said. 'We were in front of a mirror. I was kind of crying as it happened.'
After the alleged attack, Lily says she 'went to the bathroom and put on her skirt', adding that she 'felt awful... totally violated'.
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Gabon's national football coach accused of ‘raping so many boys’
16 Dec, 2021 19:01
Union bosses have warned that football is rife with grooming, assault and "horrific abuse" after disturbing accusations of repeated rape emerged against a long-serving coach and former Gabon national youth team boss.
Patrick Assoumou Eyi, who is said to be known locally as 'Capello', allegedly abused boys while leading Gabon's under-17 team and serving in his current role as the country's top-flight technical director.
He is accused of luring them to his home, which he dubbed the 'Garden of Eden'. Some victims have reportedly claimed that boys were provided for other leading figures in Gabonese football to abuse.
The alleged victims say they have not contacted police because they lack faith in the justice system, according to the Guardian.
But Fifa's international players' union, Fifpro, has received a complaint and said that its preliminary inquiries unearthed "consistent evidence from credible witnesses" who unanimously say young players have long been forced into sexual relationships as a "pre-condition for footballing opportunities".
"If these allegations are indeed true, it is yet further evidence that football is being consistently exploited, across leagues and continents, as a forum for abusers to access, groom, extort and assault players," the union added.
Where there is honey, there will be flies!
"More must be done to prevent this horrific abuse and we call on football’s governing bodies to act as a matter of urgency."
Eyi stepped down from working with the under-17s squad in 2017 but the outlet said that he continues to work with young people at the La Ligue de l’Estuaire despite a former official in Gabon's football federation, Fegafoot, reportedly claiming that he attempted to raise concerns of sexual abuse allegations at a 2019 board meeting which were brushed off.
The official is said to have been fired as a result, though Fegafoot denied that claim to the newspaper.
"He forced me to have sexual relations with him," one player who represented the under-17s side from 2015 to 2017 was quoted as saying. "That was the condition to stay in the national team.
"At the time, I left my village in order to help my family. I was living in the capital [Libreville] and becoming a professional footballer was the only way to get out of misery. So I did what I had to do to help them."
"Capello raped so many boys," the player was quoted as alleging. "He sometimes went to the countryside to find new ones.
"He took advantage of poverty and also gave some boys to other officials. In our national team, the majority had to give sex.
"That’s the reality of Gabonese football for decades but no-one can shut down the system. Predators are too numerous... we suffered hell."
Two other alleged victims say Eyi abused them when they were under 18 while they attended an academy in a Libreville suburb between 2017 and 2019.
"Sometimes, he took some kids to his house, 'Le Jardin d’Eden'," one is said to have explained. "He was very nice to me but every time I saw him he told me I was beautiful.
"One day, he told me that some of the players gave masturbation... he left his office with a smile. It was like he was sending me a message."
"I had some sexual experiences with Capello, I was obligated to," the other player is quoted as saying.
"I quit football, you know. I tried my best for my family and now I live out of the country. I can’t go back.
"Capello bought kids from remote provinces or villages with a poor background in the majority. He brainwashed them and made them believe they had to give sexual favours to him. One other coach told us one day: 'If you want to play with the under-17 national team, you know what you have to do.'"
Eyi, who was a winger but went into coaching at a young age with a noted eye for spotting footballing talent, is said to have posted a series of messages on his WhatsApp statuses where he seemed to make reference to the allegations and wrote: "Those who use lies as a weapon don’t know the reverse on the spiritual side."
Fegafoot’s media officer, Pablo Moussodji Ngoma, was quoted by the Guardian to have referenced the allegations on Facebook, criticizing them for a "weakness of evidence".
"The testimonies of the actor victims, with their names, can dissuade the perpetrators of these abominable acts but we must also allow the judicial bodies and even the courts to punish them," he reportedly wrote.
"The rest will be taken as one more communication operation for those who are committed to tarnishing Gabon’s image internationally."
In a reported statement, Fegafoot said it had "never registered any complaints relating to any act of this nature. To our knowledge, [Eyi] does not have a team and is not appointed to lead any national team," it is said to have added.
"The players you have met should consider also contacting us in order to diligently investigate because we confirm that such facts must be denounced in court and to the competent judicial bodies."
This scandal is just the latest to rock Gabonese football, which in November saw ex-Rennes star Stephane Nguema and four fellow ex-internationals arrested for protesting against continued cancelations of the domestic leagues.
As a consequence, Nguema has had to leave his role as the players' union secretary-general, with members claiming they haven't been paid in almost two years.
Billie Eilish says porn ‘destroyed my brain' after exposure at age 11:
'It led to problems'
By Jeannie Ortega Law,
Christian Post Reporter Twitter|
Friday, December 17, 2021
Singer Billie Eilish, known for her dark-themed style and music, openly shared about how watching pornography from a young age ruined her “brain.”
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” on Monday, the 19-year-old candidly shared about her early porn addiction, which began at age 11. The topic came about when Eilish spoke about the inspiration for her song “Male Fantasy.” The “Bad Guy” singer told Stern that watching explicit material affected her own intimacy as well as her mental health.
“As a woman, I think porn is a disgrace. I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was like 11,” she said. “I think it really destroyed my brain, and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.”
Eilish made history in 2019 as the youngest solo artist to win album of the year at the Grammy’s, and her success has continued since. The pop star stated that watching violent and “abusive” pornography resulted in her having sleep paralysis and night terrors.
“It got to a point where I couldn’t watch anything else unless it was violent. I didn’t think it was attractive,” she said. “I was a virgin. I had never done anything. And so, it led to problems.
The artist said the “violent” videos she watched affected her idea of intimacy. She thought that she was to emulate the things seen because that is what people were “supposed to be attracted to.”
“The first few times I had sex, I was not saying no to things that were not good. It was because I thought that’s what I was supposed to be attracted to,” Eilish noted.
“I’m so angry that porn is so loved, and I’m so angry at myself for thinking that it was OK.”
A recent Savanta ComRes poll of 2,087 adults in the United Kingdom found that 34% of adult respondents believe porn is an acceptable part of modern society.
Eilish’s remarks drew praise from anti-sexual exploitation advocates.
“Unfortunately, consuming violent porn at 11 is not an anomaly within our culture, it’s emblematic of our culture, since the average age of exposure is now somewhere between 7 and 13 years old, and most kids have unsupervised internet access by age 8,” Exodus Cry founder Benjamin Nolot said in a statement.
“While there are virtually no safeguards on any porn sites, Billie’s testimony underscores the undeniable need to protect children from the world of freely accessible porn that they are immersed in, and it’s exactly why we launched the Protect Children Not Porn campaign.”
Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said that Eilish’s testimony “matches what research about the harms of pornography show: that childhood exposure to pornography affects children’s developing brains and normalizes the sexual violence, exploitation and abuse so frequently seen in online.”
“Modern online pornography is filled with extreme sexual violence, child sexual abuse, racism, and other disturbing and abusive content,” Hawkins said. “Online pornography platforms are designed to hook even casual viewers to seek even more violent and extreme content.”
The young entertainer is not the only one in Hollywood to speak out against the porn industry.
In 2019, “Red Table Talk” host and actress Jada Pinkett Smith and her team discussed the unhealthy effects of porn.
“I had an unhealthy relationship to porn at one point in my life where I was trying to practice abstinence,” Pinkett Smith, who’s been married to Will Smith for over 24 years, shared. “It was actually like filling an emptiness. … In pornography, you’re never tired. There’s never a ‘no.’ So I can definitely see how that can create an unrealistic expectation.”
Actor Terry Crews also came forward to speak out against pornography.
In 2016, Crews posted a video on Facebook admitting that his obsession with X-rated content ended his marriage to Rebecca King Crews.
“It changes the way you think about people. People become objects,” he said. “It affected everything. I didn’t tell my wife ... didn’t tell my friends. Nobody knew. But the internet allowed that little secret to just stay and grow. It was something that my wife was literally like, ‘I don’t know you anymore. I’m out of here.’”
“Pornography really, really messed up my life in a lot of ways,” Crews added.
Fortunately, God restored Crews and his marriage, and now the couple uses their influence to share their testimony with others.
Researchers have found that Eilish and Crews’ experience is not unusual for porn users.
Research published in 2018 found that porn and loneliness fuel each other in a “vicious cycle.”
The Exodus Cry campaign Protect Children Not Porn is working to spread awareness of how the porn industry is derailing the lives of children everywhere.
The Christian non-profit advocacy organization has a petition with over 60,000 signatures, “demanding ID-based age verification on all sites hosting porn.” Exodus Cry also released the film "Raised on Porn."
After more than 100 members of Congress urged the Department of Justice to investigate the website OnlyFans over content involving the sexual abuse of children, the site announced that it would shut down all pornography accounts. Soon after that announcement, however, the site of over 120 million users that generated over $2 billion in 2020 reversed its decision.
The pornography giant Pornhub was the focus of headlines this year after it was accused by victims of sex trafficking of monetizing child sexual abuse, rape and sex trafficking on its platform. The uproar led payment processors to stop doing business with the site.
Data compiled by Webroot Cybersecurity found that over 28,200 users are watching porn every second, and 35% “of all internet downloads are related to pornography.”
Stretch that out to a whole minute and you get incredible numbers - At any given moment, an estimated 750,000 adults are seeking to abuse children in some 40,000 public chat rooms worldwide, reported international children’s rights organisation Terre des Hommes, citing data from the United Nations and US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
What a pathetic generation we are! And what's more pathetic is that politicians won't touch this. They will sacrifice another generation of children at the altar of pornography, because children don't vote; they have no voice.
I have long proclaimed that adolescent exposure to pornography is a primary cause of the 'culture of rape' that exists in so many western schools and universities.
I also believe that sin is progressive. In pornography that means that viewers progress from ordinary adult porn into younger and younger characters and more and more violence.
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