Gerald Marie, ex-Elite Models President accused of rape, sexual assault

Gerald Marie, who was president of Elite for 25 years, allegedly raped two models, aged 17 and 20, in the 1980s and 1990s.

Gerald, boss of one of the biggest modelling agencies has been accused of rape and sexual assault in France.

He is facing a legal investigation in France after four women reported claims of rape and sexual assault.

Carré Sutton and Jill Dodd accused Mr Marie of raping them when they were 17 and 20, respectively. A third woman, Ebba Karlsson alleges that Mr Marie sexually assaulted her when she was 20 during a meeting in his office at Elite in Paris in the 1990s.

A fourth woman, Lisa Brinkworth, 53, says she was sexually assaulted by Marie while posing as a model and working as a journalist in 1998.

At the time of the alleged offences, Elite Models had launched the careers of household names such as Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Marie’s former wife, supermodel Linda Evangelista.

Brinkworth’s documentary caused a stir when it was screened in Britain in 1999.

It led to the suspension of Marie and fellow executive Xavier Moreau. But they were later reinstated and the agency pursued the BBC and other broadcasters of the programme for defamation.

The documentary, which filmed Elite’s activities with a hidden camera, alleged that under-age models were pressured into physical relationships and using drugs.

Moreover, Gerald Marie left Elite Models, the world’s biggest modelling agency, in 2012 and currently the head of Paris-based agency Oui Management.