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French Olympic swimmer Yannick Agnel has been indicted by a French criminal court for alleged acts of rape and sexual assault on a minor under 15 years of age.
The 33-year-old has ten days from the decision on Thursday January 15 to appeal the decision to the highest court in France’s judiciary, the court of cassation.
Agnel was widely reported to first be arrested for the offences in 2021 after a complaint referring to sexual acts committed around 2016, which he admitted but denied any coercion took place.
The French parliament passed a law in 2021 that characterised sex with a child under the age of 15, the country’s age of consent, as rape, preventing an adult from claiming consent with that age group.
An appeal to the court of cassation would not be judged on the merits of the case, but whether the rules of law have been correctly applied.
Agnel competed in freestyle for France in the 2012 Olympic Games, winning gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay and in the 200m individual event. He retired in 2016, after the Rio Olympics in Brazil.
