Former Elite Models boss Gérald Marie has been credibly accused of raping young models, including teenage Carré Otis when she was just 17, according to an exposé.
Mickey Rourke’s ex-wife Otis is one of two women to file rape claims against Marie, who was the president of the European arm of Elite Models for 25 years.
The accusations have been presented in legal papers to a prosecutor in Paris – submitted by the same lawyer representing women claiming they were raped by Jean-Luc Brunel, the modeling agency boss linked to notorious child rapist Jeffrey Epstein.
Nypost.com reports: No criminal proceedings have been launched and the prosecutor could choose not to launch a full investigation into the complaints lodged with the Tribunal Judiciaire, the paper noted.
Marie vehemently denied the claims. “It would not be appropriate for me to comment at this time on the allegations of historic wrongdoing being made against me, other than to make it clear that I categorically deny them,” he told the UK Times.
Elite has represented some of the world’s most famous models, including Cindy Crawford, Gisele Bündchen, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell.
The accusers spoke to Lisa Brinkworth, a journalist who has also accused Marie of sexually assaulting her while she worked undercover as a model for an exposé of the industry for the BBC in 1998, the paper said.
Former model Jill Dodd, now 60, claims in the legal submission that Marie raped her when she was 20 after she moved to France to join the agency he worked for in 1980, Paris Planning, the report said.
The Swedish model Ebba Karlsson, now a 51-year-old life coach living in North Carolina, says she was “traumatized” after being sexually assaulted by Marie while he was with Elite in 1990, the paper said of the legal filing. “Today this girl is claiming her victory,” she wrote in an Instagram post early Sunday of her “call on justice and to be part of launching the criminal proceedings.”
Otis, now 51, alleges that Marie raped her while she was alone in Paris while starting the career that took her on to star in campaigns for Calvin Klein and Guess Jeans as well as her x-rated movie with Rourke, “Wild Orchid.”
It would have been when he was engaged to supermodel Evangelista and just before their one-year marriage in 1987.
Californian Otis hinted about the upcoming exposé in an Instagram post late Saturday where she said she has “worked diligently with several brave souls over the past months to bring truth and justice forth.”
“It has taken courage and hand-holding. True support from a band of angels, she wrote, sending “gratitude to my sisters that have found their lion hearts, their warrior legs, and stood with me behind the scenes fighting a very dark force.”
She told the UK Times that she refuses to stay silent about “intolerable acts by men in power who seem to be able to act in all impunity,” especially as a mother of two daughters, aged 12 and 13.
“We still have perpetrators in the industry and it has to stop. I have daughters. I don’t want them to have to grow up and normalize any amount of sexual harassment or sexual assault in their lives,” she said.
“I would like to tell other victims and survivors that telling my story was pivotal to me. It was so important for me to find my voice and trailblaze. It involved a lot of tears and processing and a lot of healing too.”
Brinkworth insisted that “fashion is long overdue its #MeToo moment.”
“Industry insiders and ex-models explain that abuse is entrenched and that those still working dare not speak out,” she wrote.
Elite Models did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Times of London said Marie is now the chairman of a Paris modeling agency called Oui Management, which referred The Post to his denial when asked for comment.
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