A former French senator has been found guilty of putting ecstasy in a female MP's drink with the intention of sexually assaulting her.
Joel Guerriau was sentenced to four years in prison, 18 months of which he will serve behind bars, and according to local media, was ordered to pay Sandrine Josso 5,000 euros in compensation for emotional distress.
Guerriau, now 68, invited Josson, 50, to his Paris apartment in November 2023.
He later admitted to serving her a drink laced with MDMA, but claimed it was an accident and denied having any intention to attack her.
According to court documents cited by French media, Josso said he had gone to Guerrieau's house three years ago to celebrate his re-election when he began to feel unwell after drinking a glass of champagne.
“I had gone to visit a friend and discovered an aggressor,” she said Monday while testifying in court. “He looked at me intently, I had never seen him that way. I didn’t want to show him my weakness because I was worried that if I told him I wasn’t feeling well, he would have made me lie down.”
Josso recalled that she managed to leave the apartment and, with the help of a colleague, went to the hospital where a toxicology report confirmed that her blood had three times the recreational dose of MDMA.
" I feel sorry for Sandrine ," Guerriau told the court in Paris.
"I am disgusted with myself, with my recklessness and stupidity."