A former French senator has been found guilty of drugging a fellow politician in order to sexually assault her, in a case that has shaken French politics.
Joël Guerriau, 68, was sentenced on Tuesday evening to four years in prison of which 18 months must be behind bars. He has appealed against the verdict, which means he will not immediately serve his sentence and instead will face a fresh trial at a later date.
At the time of the drugging, in November 2023, Guerriau was a centrist senator for Loire-Atlantique in the west of France. The politician was found guilty of spiking a glass of champagne with MDMA and serving it to Sandrine Josso, 50, a member of parliament for the centrist MoDem party.
Josso told he court she had had heart palpitations, nausea and struggled to stand upright, but managed to flee his apartment. She said the guilty verdict was a “huge relief”.
The high-profile trial of the former senator comes after Gisèle Pelicot became an international hero in 2024 after waiving her right to anonymity in a trial of dozens of men convicted of raping her after she was drugged by her then husband.
Josso has also become a major figure in France’s fight against drug-related sexual assault, helping to lead a parliamentary investigation and co-authoring a parliamentary report about the issue.
In court, Guerriau denied he had been intending to sexually assault Josso. He said he had made a “very serious” mistake that led him to serve Josso a drugged drink. “I feel really sorry for Sandrine. That’s something I never wanted,” he said. “I hope one day she’ll forgive me.”
Guerriau said he had poured the powdered ecstasy into a glass the day before their celebration to help calm a panic attack, but had decided against taking it, placing the glass back in the cupboard. “In short, I am an idiot,” he said.
Josso told the court she thought she would die after going to see Guerriau at his flat in the French capital’s chic 6th arrondissement. She said she had visited “with a light heart to celebrate his re-election. As the evening went on, I discovered an attacker.”
She was the only guest at his Paris home that evening, and after he poured her a glass of champagne in the kitchen, she noted it tasted sweet and sticky. “I thought maybe it was a bad champagne. Then he insisted that we toast again. I found that odd,” she said in court.
Josso described soon feeling unwell, with a racing heart rate, and she left hurriedly before going to hospital. A toxicology report revealed a high dose of the drug in her blood. Ecstasy was also found at Guerriau’s flat.
Josso’s lawyer, Arnaud Godefroy, said she had taken six months off work, during which she had “physical treatment, psychological and psychiatric follow-up, nightmares, flashbacks, dissociation”.
Josso said she had to have four teeth removed because of the stress that caused her to grind her teeth.
Investigators testified that Guerriau had searched online for information about drugs, including ecstasy, in connection with rape, about a month before the attack. Guerriau said the research was part of his work as a senator.
The state prosecutor, Benjamin Coulon, said Guerriau “deliberately placed” MDMA in Josso’s champagne “with the aim of raping her”.
Coulon said Guerriau, who served as a senator from 2011 to 2025, had voted for the law creating the offence of administering a harmful substance with intent to commit rape or sexual assault.
In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
