Scandal in France Mayor lures rival into trap - and blackmails him with sex video
After years of blackmailing a rival with a sex video, a court sentenced the mayor of Saint-Étienne. The judge speaks of the "extreme seriousness of the acts committed".
01.12.2025, 14:22
dpa
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- The mayor of Saint-Étienne blackmailed a political rival with a sex video.
- He has been sentenced to five years in prison.
- The court considered it proven that Gaël Perdriau had deliberately lured a deputy into a trap with a male prostitute and secretly filmed him.
- Perdriau must resign from office immediately.
A court in France has sentenced the mayor of the city of Saint-Étienne, Gaël Perdriau, to five years in prison for blackmailing a political rival with a sex video. The court found it proven that the 53-year-old conservative politician had his first deputy filmed with a hidden camera in a Parisian hotel in the company of a male prostitute in order to politically blackmail him, as reported by the newspaper "Le Figaro".
The alderman is said to have been deliberately set up. One year of the sentence was suspended on probation. The mayor maintained his innocence in court until the end and announced that he would appeal. However, he must vacate his town hall office immediately after the verdict.
In her verdict, presiding judge Brigitte Verney spoke of the "extreme seriousness of the acts committed". Three others involved in the extortion, which lasted several years, were also sentenced to prison.
The conservative party Les Républicains, of which Perdriau was vice-chairman in the meantime, had already expelled the mayor for "vile methods" against a political rival.
