Since the indictment of Yannick Agnel for rape and sexual assault on a minor in December 2021, the swimming microcosm has been speechless. The two-time Olympic champion recognized the “Materiality of the facts” but contested “Any constraint” exercised on the complainant, 13 years old at the time and daughter of Lionel Horter, her trainer at Mulhouse Olympic Natation (MON). The facts would have unfolded “Throughout the year 2016”, in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), the swimmer’s training town, but “Also abroad, in Thailand [où le MON se rend régulièrement en stage, ndlr] or to Rio of January”, host city of the 2016 Olympic Games, detailed in December the prosecutor of Mulhouse, Edwige Roux-Morizot.
“NOT. told me at the end of 2017 that she had had a relationship with Yannick Agnel a year earlier ”
An investigation published this Thursday by the investigation unit of Radio France suggests that several people, more or less close in the entourage of the swimmer as of the young girl, were aware of the facts at the time, or learned about them some time after. A former MON employee thus ensures that he is “Fallen from the clouds” by learning the nature of the relationship in Thailand. As an anonymized swimmer remembers the victim surrendered “regularly” in Yannick Agnel’s room during this stay, others find it hard to believe that the parents of the victim – Lionel and Marjorie Horter, themselves on almost all trips – “May not have seen anything” from what was happening between their daughter and the swimmer.
Other testimonies collected by Radio France tend to show that several other swimmers knew the intimate relationship that existed between Agnel and Lionel Horter’s daughter. The victim allegedly entrusted it to several athletes. “NOT. told me at the end of 2017 that she had had a relationship with Yannick Agnel a year earlier. She told me in the tone of confidence. I think she didn’t realize ”, said a swimmer. Another swimmer who has left the club in the meantime assures that little by little, “Everyone is aware within the club”.
“There is no evidence at present that the parents were aware”
The parents of the victim however assured to have been informed by their daughter only in the summer of 2021, two weeks before she lodged a complaint. A version questioned by several testimonies collected by the investigation unit of Radio France. A person presented as “A former club executive” narrates a scene which would have taken place in the spring of 2019, when Yannick Agnel is in bickering with the MON, which would not have paid him his last year of contract, or 60,000 euros. The club sends a letter of conciliation to Agnel. “Franck Horter [président du MON et frère de Lionel, ndlr] told me that Yannick would be wise to accept this conciliation, because they have a file on him and his niece, N. ”, tells the old executive in question.
“There is no evidence at present that the parents were aware, insists Edwige Roux-Morizot, prosecutor of Mulhouse, questioned by Radio France.Judicial information evolves with the hearings. We’ll see. In any case, that does not lessen the suffering of the victim. “
“If the facts constitute rape or sexual assault, it is because there is a significant age difference” between the victim and the swimmer, aged 24 at the time of the facts in 2016, specified the prosecutor at the time of the indictment of Yannick Agnel. While recalling that the law in France prohibits any sexual relationship between an adult and a minor under 15 years old, even if the latter is consenting.
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