Havant photographer denies sexually assaulting aspiring actress, saying it 'absolutely' did not happen

Pascal Molliere, 54, is alleged to have touched the woman, whose identity is protected by law, inappropriately and kissed her during an hour-long photoshoot at a warehouse in Fulham, west London, in July 2010.

Jurors at Southwark Crown Court heard the alleged victim, who was 22 at the time while Molliere was 44 or 45, wanted headshots to help publicise herself as an actress.

The court heard how she brought lingerie with her to the shoot as she was also interested in having some ‘sexy photos taken for her boyfriend during the session.’

On February 16, Molliere denied the allegations and told a jury the woman was ‘confident’ and ‘very keen’ to do ‘sexualised’ adult pictures in which he photographed her naked, but he denied convincing her to do them or touching her.

He told the court: ‘I know that she was very keen to do sort of adult style shots.

She kept saying “for my partner, I think he will like these” and as I was shooting she was definitely feeling a lot more comfortable, a lot more relaxed and a lot more keen to be photographed in this way.’

Molliere said the woman had left the photoshoot ‘elated’ and, when he received a call from her boyfriend days later, believed the couple had fallen out over the nature of the pictures.

He said: ‘I don’t remember how it started but I remember a guy saying he was [the woman’s] boyfriend and how did she end up naked? What happened? Did she do anything?

‘He was quite angry but he was uncertain of what she had done. He was very upset and he began to confide in me that he was going to get married to this girl and how upset he feels that she had betrayed him, that she had done this nude photoshoot with a complete stranger.

‘I had to almost console him and calm him down.’

The court previously heard from the alleged victim’s boyfriend who said he called to demand a refund and for the pictures to be deleted and that he branded Molliere an ‘abhorrent human’ after hearing he had ‘touched’ her.

But Molliere said: ‘At no point did he accuse me or suggest any sexual assault of any kind.

‘He wanted to know what she had done he was not entirely confident about her behaviour he suspected she had been up to something that she wasn’t telling him.’

Molliere was asked directly whether he had cupped, stroked, or kissed any part of her body during the shoot.

He said: ‘I would have to go up very close to her. I would have had to put my camera down approach her and break the shoot, completely break the whole flow, the whole rapport that you have built up. You would have to stop photographing, go up to her, and assault her and that’s absolutely what didn’t happen.’

He added: ‘The thing about the kiss is it’s complete nonsense, utter nonsense. If I ever kissed any client it would have been a peck on the cheek politely and it’s just utter nonsense.’

The court heard how the woman had moved to London to pursue a career in acting and contacted Molliere in 2010 for headshots via a website called StarNow.

She was said to have borrowed money from her mother to pay for the shoot, which took place at Cooper House on Fulham Broadway, between July 1 and 31.

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When she arrived to meet Molliere, he locked the door and was ‘polite and professional’ for the first 15 minutes while he took headshots, but started touching her and took photos of her from underneath once she had undressed, the court heard.

The boyfriend told the court the alleged victim did not want to report the incident to the police at the time because she felt ‘upset and ashamed.’

But nine years later, on January 17, 2019, the woman told police about the alleged incident after being inspired by the Me Too movement, jurors heard.

Molliere was interviewed by police on May 8 2019, and provided a prepared statement in which he denied all allegations, the court heard.

In 2021, images from the shoot showing the woman in ‘various stages of undress,’ were extracted from a laptop seized at Molliere’s address, and the jury was shown edited versions of the photographs.

Molliere, of Havant, has denied four counts of sexual assault and having any sexual contact with the woman.

The trial continues.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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