A French court has sentenced a mayor to four years in prison for blackmailing a political rival with a secretly recorded sex tape involving a male sex worker.
Gael Perdriau, who has been mayor of the eastern French city of Saint-Etienne since 2014, was found guilty of blackmail, criminal conspiracy, and misusing public funds.
Throughout the trial, Perdriau denied ordering the recording of a video involving his former deputy, Gilles Artigues, a Roman Catholic who had publicly opposed gay marriage.
However, a court in the eastern city of Lyon found the 53-year-old guilty on Monday and sentenced him to four years in prison, with an additional year suspended. He was also banned from holding public office for five years, effective immediately.
The presiding judge, Brigitte Vernay, said Perdriau was “entirely guilty” of the crimes.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Perdriau ordered the sex tape to be filmed in a hotel room in early 2015 to ensure his deputy’s loyalty. They said he warned Artigues that he would release the video if his deputy went against him politically.
“He was the one with his finger on the nuclear button,” prosecutors said.
The court also handed prison sentences to three other people involved in the case, including the mayor’s former chief of staff and another deputy, who admitted to setting up the trap for Artigues.
After the ruling, Perdriau insisted he was innocent and said he would appeal the conviction.
However, evidence presented in court showed that in 2017, Artigues secretly recorded a conversation with Perdriau in which the mayor told him he had a “USB stick” full of compromising images and threatened to release them.
Artigues told the court that the blackmail left him unable to function properly during city hall meetings.
“I was like a puppet,” he said. “They put me there, and I smiled.”
The former deputy, who testified that he had thought about killing himself because of the blackmail, welcomed Monday’s verdict.
“Today, I think I will be able to rebuild my life,” he said, surrounded by family members.
The case has shocked France and raised questions about abuse of power by elected officials and the lengths some politicians will go to maintain control over their rivals.
Saint-Etienne is an industrial city in eastern France that has been governed by Perdriau for over a decade.
The conviction and immediate ban from public office means Perdriau can no longer serve as mayor of the city.
