A FRENCH rugby legend has been filmed allegedly lifting up an influencer’s skirt while sitting underneath her.
Charline Pradeau, 23, was dancing on a table in a bar in south west France when the former ruby player and TV presenter Richard Dourthe allegedly peaked under her skirt.
Charline Pradeau, 23, is a lifestyle influencer[/caption]
Richard Dourthe is a TV presenter and ex-rugby player[/caption]
Video of the incident, which took place at the Féria de Dax, an annual festival in the town of Dax, has amassed over a million views.
The 23-year-old appears in high spirits as she dances on the bar table before noticing the man pull up her skirt.
Dressed in customary red and white, she appears to reprimand him before looking directly in the camera.
Pradeau, from Toulouse, is famed for her wholesome posts documenting what she does day-to-day.
This latest clip was posted with two captions, one which said: “You just want to enjoy yourself but it’s impossible again because… men.”
And the other: “I hope that your wife sees this, you fat pig. So sick of having to stop living because of you, I won’t shut up.”
After sharing the now-viral video, the influencer revealed she has been struggling emotionally with the “abuse” she experienced.
She later filed a complaint for “sexist behaviour” against Dourthe, who responded, via his lawyer, on Wednesday lodging a defamation complaint against the influencer.
He also denied his behaviour was “sexist” and claimed that the “young woman had lifted her friend’s skirt” before Dourthe was involved.
The statement also said that the video failed to “show the young woman placing her posterior at shoulder level with men who were having a drink together”.
Dourthe apologised immediately after the incident, the statement concluded.
His lawyer, Arnaud Dupin said: “Richard Dourthe deplores being the target of a media campaign orchestrated by an influencer, who has not hesitated in engaging in genuine slanderous disinformation against him.”
“Mr Richard Dourthe acknowledges that he had no business touching the frill of a girl’s short skirt while she was dancing on a bar.
“He immediately apologised to the young woman concerned. Nevertheless, this attitude in no way justifies distorting facts to create ‘a buzz’.
“It masks an equally surprising gesture by the young woman, herself an influencer, who lifted her friend’s skirt before Mr Richard Dourthe had even intervened.
The 23-year-old filed a complaint against the rugby star for “sexist” behaviour[/caption]
“Furthermore, this video does not show the beginning of the sequence of events where the young woman placed her posterior at shoulder level with men who were having a drink together, without paying attention to her.”
After hearing news of the defamation complaint, Pradeau released her own statement via her lawyer Alexandre Parra-Bruguière.
Referring to the ex-rugby player’s legal actions as “desperate and grotesque” she insisted she remained “entirely unfazed”.
The statement read: “The complaint lodged by his lawyer is legally and morally misplaced.
“My client is entirely unfazed; the facts which she has denounced are proven and her words only confirm what everyone can see in a video which has been in no way doctored.
“There was no need for a 50-year-old man, leaning on a bar, to lift up the skirt of a 23-year-old woman to look underneath.”
The Instagram star said she’s suffered as a result of the experience[/caption]
Pradeau was dancing on a table when her skirt was pulled up[/caption]
