Nearly 250 women have accused a former senior French civil servant of drugging them during job interviews and subjecting them to humiliating situations, according to a BBC investigation.
The women alleged that Christian Nègre used drugs to make them lose control of their bladders during interviews between 2009 and 2018.
The alleged practice, known as chemical submission, involves using drugs or other substances to control, incapacitate or impair another person.
One of the alleged victims, Anaïs de Vos, said she was 27 when she met Nègre for a job interview at France’s Ministry of Culture in Paris in 2011.
De Vos said Nègre offered her a cup of coffee, which he prepared himself. Although she rarely drank coffee, she accepted it out of politeness but noticed that it tasted unusual.
She said she shortly afterwards began feeling extremely weak and developed an uncontrollable urge to urinate.
According to De Vos, as they walked through Paris, she desperately searched for a toilet, but Nègre directed her towards a storage cupboard under a bridge and told her she could urinate there.
She eventually found a café where she could use the toilet but said she lost control of her bladder before reaching it.
“I felt really weak physically,” she recalled.
De Vos said she was left confused and distressed by the incident and initially could not understand what had happened.
In 2019, police contacted her and told her she was among almost 200 women they suspected Nègre had drugged during job interviews.
“I was shocked,” she said. “But I was happy to know I wasn’t crazy. Something had happened that day.”
Police are believed to have found a spreadsheet on Nègre’s computer titled “Experiments P.”
According to De Vos, the document contained details about the women, including the time they arrived, when the alleged drug was administered, how long it took before they urinated and what underwear they were wearing.
Investigators believe Nègre used diuretics, drugs that increase urine production and are commonly prescribed to treat conditions including high blood pressure.
The investigation began in 2018 after a colleague reportedly caught Nègre taking a photograph of a woman from beneath a table.
He was suspended from his position as regional director of cultural affairs before being dismissed by the Ministry of Culture in 2019.
Nègre, now in his 60s, is under formal investigation over allegations including drugging, invasion of privacy and sexual assault. He is awaiting trial.
The BBC put the allegations to him through his lawyer, but he declined to comment.
Another alleged victim, Marie-Hélène Brice, said she was interviewed by Nègre in Strasbourg in 2016.
