A bar manager, tried for four rapes and two sexual assaults which he had always disputed, ended up recognizing all the facts on Thursday, on the fourth day of his trial in Paris.
“If the girls say they have suffered things, it’s the truth,” said Wilfried Nkongo, 41.
“I was ashamed to admit to myself that I could be that person,” he added to explain this reversal before the Assize Court.
Since the first complaint filed against him on May 28, 2017, which had freed the words of other young women claiming to be victims of his actions, Wilfried Nkongo had persisted in saying that he had done nothing.
Before the court, he first maintained his denials, saying that the scenes of rape or sexual assault described at the bar by the six civil parties had “not existed”.
For one of them, genetic expertise proved the existence of a sexual relationship, but he continued to say Wednesday that he was “consented”, after having denied it at the start of the investigation.
After this spontaneous declaration, the president of the court, Dominique Legrand, invited the accused to specify, victim by victim, if he recognized the facts.
“Yes”, replied Wilfried Nkongo for each of the six offenses denounced.
Two civil parties accused him of having penetrated them while they were sleeping, the first in May 2017, the second in the summer of 2018 when Wilfried Nkongo was under judicial control in his house in Var, indicted after a first series of complaints.
Two other young women were reporting digital penetrations, in February 2016 and early 2017 in Paris.
Two complainants claimed to have been forcibly kissed and touched on the breasts or buttocks, during 2016 and in March 2017, in one of the night establishments managed by the accused. “They don’t lie,” confirmed Wilfried Nkongo.
Manager of bars that have become famous places of Parisian nightlife, he has been described by many ex-employees as a “generous” and “sympathetic” boss, but with “more than inappropriate” behavior towards young waitresses and customers. , when others have portrayed him as a “sexual predator”.
Three former waitresses, who did not file a complaint or act as civil parties, spoke to the court about the “forced kisses” and touching of which they were victims.
“Everything was trivialized”, explained witnesses and civil parties. Until the “click” caused by the first complaint.
The verdict is expected Friday.