A French official's alleged drugging of over 100 women still awaits justice

Years after a partial 2019 admission by Christian Nègre, a former Culture Ministry official, no criminal trial date has been set

2 min readUpdated May 21, 2026

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Despite a years-long criminal investigation that has catalogued 248 potential victims, no trial date has been set for a former senior French civil servant who allegedly laced job candidates' drinks with diuretics on more than 100 occasions, according to The New York Times.

Prosecutors brought charges against Christian Nègre — who had served as human resources director at France's Culture Ministry — encompassing harmful substance administration, abuse of public office through violence, privacy violations, and sexual assault, with the alleged conduct spanning 2009 to 2018, The Times reported. His dismissal from the ministry came in October of that year.

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Among the material recovered from Nègre's electronic devices was a document titled "Experiments P," which named 181 women and recorded observations about their reactions during encounters that investigators believe involved drugging, The Times reported. Some of the women said they learned of the spreadsheet's contents when officers read passages aloud to them.

When Libération reached him in 2019, Nègre offered a limited concession, saying he had given drugs to somewhere between ten and twenty women. The quotes attributed to him at the time — "I wish someone had stopped me sooner" and "It was compulsive, but I had no intention of poisoning these women" — remain his last known public statements on the matter, according to The Times. His attorney has since indicated he will not comment while investigators continue their work.

Accounts from multiple women describe a consistent pattern: Nègre would serve tea or coffee — allegedly spiked with diuretics — and then guide interviewees on extended outdoor walks that kept them well away from any restrooms, The Times reported. The effects, they said, extended beyond the day of the encounter, leaving a number of them with long-term physical ailments and psychological harm.

Ten or more women pursued legal action against the French government, contending that authorities overlooked sustained misconduct by a high-ranking official. An administrative court determined that seven of the plaintiffs deserved monetary redress while simultaneously clearing the ministry of responsibility for failing to prevent the abuse, according to The Times.

A French official's alleged drugging of over 100 women still awaits justice

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