Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
THE Olive Press has tracked down a beleaguered modelling agency boss alleged to have raped over a dozen teenagers on his books.
French fashion mogul Gerald Marie has been living the highlife around Ibiza, taking long lunches and shopping, when not luxuriating at his multi-million euro villa on the island.
We watched the mogul dining with friends and new wife, Russian model Irina Bondarenko, while the courts in Paris continue to investigate years of shocking claims.
The ex-Elite agency boss is accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a string of women in attacks akin to those of Americans Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.
While he strenuously denies the claims, we have helped to expose his luxury lifestyle for a hard-hitting TV documentary for Australia’s Channel Nine.
The 60 Minutes documentary, which aired at the weekend, heard from many alleged former victims, including ex-Hollywood star Carre Otis, journalist Lisa Brinkworth and British model Paula Thomas.
“He basically said if you want to be paid you’re going to have to have sex with me,” Thomas, 52, told the show, Beauty and the Creep.
The former Elite chief is being probed by a French court over the claims of at least 13 former models, who claim he either raped or sexually abused them.
French prosecutors confirmed last year that Marie was accused of raping three models aged between 17 and 20 in the 1980s and 1990s. Many more have since joined the prosecution.
Such crimes are punishable by up to 15 years in prison but the statute of limitations is normally 20 years so most alleged offences are proscribed. In the case of sex with a minor, this statute can be raised to 30 years which may see him in court.
A lawyer, Anne-Claire Le Jeune, handling their case in Paris told the documentary she is representing 14 former models and there are ‘12 more’ she is also speaking to.
The 71-year-old is expected to be shortly charged with the offences that stretch back over 30 years.
He even managed to continue in his role as a fashion boss despite a BBC documentary into his abuses in 1999.
A former colleague of Marie’s told the documentary he is helping Paris detectives investigate the historic allegations of abuse.
Whistle-blower Omar Harfouch claims Elite bosses had a scoreboard they called ‘the podium of pussy’ which handed points for having sex, gaining more points for virgins and young girls.
“My first impression was he was a sexual predator,” said the businessman, who claims Gerald threatened his life for going public.
He gave chapter and verse on how the grooming process worked, all backed up with footage from a former undercover BBC investigation by journalist Donal Macintyre in the 1990s.
In the documentary in 1999 the Irishman went undercover as a photographer alongside aspiring journalist Lisa Brinkworth, who posed as a model.
Brinkworth now admits today that she was sexually assaulted by the French fashion boss, but ‘wrongly’ failed to report it to the police at the time.
The Olive Press spent a week locating his homes and businesses on the island, which include various property development companies.
He has an incredible villa (pictured above) in the exclusive Es Cubells corner, hidden in the wooded hills and with breathtaking views along the coast and across to Formentera island.
There were three cars in the drive and a team of staff maintained the well-clipped gardens.
We watched him go out to eat on three occasions on the dot of 1pm, always getting the best tables by the beach.
He looked healthy and happy and was constantly laughing and one waiter at €75-a-head restaurant Es Xarcu described him as ‘always upbeat, a real crack’.
He continued: “He is one of our best clients and it doesn’t matter how busy we are he will always get a table right down by the beach.”
Marie, who has two daughters of his own, was eventually confronted by the film crew at a beachside restaurant in Ibiza Town, where he denied the allegations.
In an angry confrontation, he waved a film crew away and belittled their clothes, while he continued eating.
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