Senior French civil servant accused of drugging women and forcing them to wet themselves in 'sadistic' interview plot

Christian Nègre has faced accusations of alleged abuse from 249 women while he worked as a senior civil servant and human resources director at France’s culture ministry.

The official, who is now in his 60s, allegedly carried out the horrific power play during fake job interviews between 2009 and 2018.

Read more: Jeffrey Epstein 'hid secret files' in storage lockers across US

Read more: Powerful Mexican drug cartel boss ‘El Mencho' killed by security forces

His alleged victims say Mr Nègre would fill their coffee or tea with powerful diuretics before taking them on long walks to humiliate them as they struggled to control their bladders.

His female accusers say the civil servant would note every detail of the humiliating experience, from the colour of their underwear to the strength of their urine flow.

They also claim Mr Nègre took covert pictures of them while they were urinating.

Mr Negre was charged with administering harmful substances without consent in 2019 after detectives discovered multiple photos, many of them featuring women’s legs taken from under the table, after seizing his phone and computer.

Nearly seven years later, Mr Nègre’s victims have become frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation.

Despite the scale of complaints, no trial date has been set and Mr Nègre remains free pending the outcome.

In 2019, Mr Nègre acknowledged administering diuretics and taking some photographs, but minimised his conduct and the number of women affected.

He has never publicly apologised to the women.

One victim, who refused to be named, told the Telegraph: "It’s overwhelming, heartbreaking, infuriating … it’s yet another failure of society to protect and repair these women."

One woman claimed that during a walking interview with Mr Negre , he offered to hide her in his jacket and "looked her in the eyes" as she crouched down to urinate.

Another woman, named Hiyam Zarouri, said Mr Negre slipped a powerful diuretic into her coffee to make her urinate, then took her on a three-and-a-half-hour walk in central Paris in high heels.

"I started to have cold sweats, chills and hot flashes, a bloated stomach, and my feet really, really hurt," Ms Zarouri said.

"I thought I was going to die."

Unlike other women who accuse him, Zarouri eventually did manage to insist they return to the ministry - where he had said she should leave her bag - so she could go to the toilet.

When she came out, he was waiting just outside, she said.

These horrific encounters were recorded by Mr Nègre on an Excel spreadsheet entitled “experiments”, French police said.

The culture ministry official, who was chillingly nicknamed “le photographe” – the photographer, was only caught after a junior colleague saw him photographing a senior female official at work in 2018.

In 2023, the French government was ordered to pay compensation of up to €16,000 (£14,000) to seven alleged victims in a civil case.

But the culture ministry was found not to be at fault as an employer. An appeal rests with the Council of State.

Police say their probe into the accusations is still open and the alleged victims have one month to hand in their testimonies before the investigation is officially closed.