Invited to speak on France Inter, she recounted for the first time in person the sexual abuse suffered by children in the 7th arrondissement of Paris at the hands of the "men of rue du Bac". She denounced her adoptive father, a close friend and great admirer of the writer Gabriel Matzneff, who had already been accused by Vanessa Springora.

In 2024, Libération published a series of investigations entitled "The Men of Rue du Bac, " which identified several French intellectuals from the 7th arrondissement of Paris, accused of sexual crimes committed over several years against children, including the adopted daughter of one of them, Inès Chatin. For the first time, she spoke publicly on Tuesday, April 7, on France Inter radio, recounting a shattered childhood under the "gilded ceilings" of this Parisian upper class, subjected from the age of four to "pedophilic ceremonies," then raped by several "uncles" until puberty.

She names her main abusers: her adoptive father Jean-François Lemaire, whom she calls Gaston; the writer Gabriel Matzneff, already implicated by Vanessa Springora; the former editor of Le Point, Claude Imbert; the academician Jean-François Revel; the lawyer François Gibault; and Bishop Jean-Michel Di Falco, recently convicted of child sex abuse. A judicial investigation is underway, even though the statute of limitations has expired.

Forced to call them "uncles"

Inès Chatin and her brother were adopted by a doctor who, according to her, was married "for appearances" to an heiress who was a victim of domestic violence. "Mom very often had very visible marks, bruises at the very least, sometimes much worse (...). We were raised in a very masculine environment, with these men almost co-parenting us," she explains. She adds that the children had to call them "uncles." Years later, they were all even imposed on her at her wedding by her adoptive father, who invited them.

Among the abuse she suffered between the ages of four and eight, she described "the games" on France Inter radio. The children were placed in the middle of a group of masked men wearing capes. Beforehand, they were forced to drink a "white beverage." Inès Chatin doesn't know what it contained, but suspects, based on prescriptions found in Jean-François Lemaire's archives, the presence of several medications, including an anxiolytic, Temesta, likely intended "to make us a little drowsy, so we wouldn't rebel." "In a way, I've always thought it was fortunate that these medications were there, because that slightly euphoric effect perhaps made it easier or less difficult to bear." These men surrounding the children were equipped with various objects that would be used to penetrate them, Inès Chatin continued, speaking to Sonia Devillers.

"When you are forbidden to speak, it is the body that cries out."

The children were not to cry. "Crying attracts attention again and prolongs the ordeal for those involved ," recalls Inès Chatin.

From these "tortures," the child she was retained sensory memories. "When you are forbidden to speak, it is the body that cries out. And when you encounter these men again, in every grain of their skin, in every pore, in every drop of perspiration, there are these smells that pierce you and remind you again of what happened."

Bishop Jean-Michel Di Falco, whom she will not mention again because she has made a new request for a hearing at the Office of Minors (Ofmin), is the one who triggered in her "the worst reaction".

Raped until she reached puberty

Inès Chatin maintains that she was handed over by her adoptive father to Claude Imbert and Gabriel Matzneff until she reached puberty. Jean-François Lemaire admitted to these rapes at the very end of his life. Now living in a nursing home, he agreed to revisit those years with his adopted daughter through hours of recorded conversations she had made.

Happy to bequeath his "intellectual legacy," he calmly justifies it with a smile, referring to Greco-Roman antiquity. "He even boasts about it," recounts Inès Chatin, "explaining to me that it's a way of paving the way for children." "The child was zealous, perhaps not inclined, but the result was the same: the object of his elders' sexual attention," Jean-François Lemaire can be heard explaining in these recordings. Following these interviews, Inès Chatin understood that the "wish" of all these men was "that it would be passed down through the generations." This is what prompted her to speak out.