Former French tennis boss sentenced to 10 years for rape

Besancon, France, 14 Feb - A former vice-president of the French Tennis Federation was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday for raping an ex-player almost 50 years his junior.

Jean-Pierre Dartevelle's victim is now 25 but was between 17 and 19 when she was attacked from September 2016 to March 2018.

Attorney General Francois Prelot said that throughout the trial the accused "did not budge one iota in his statements" while the parents of the victim "waited for confessions, regrets, apologies".

Dartevelle accused the girl of having lied and that the three-day trial had pictured him as a "manipulator" and a "monster".

He described his relationship with the victim as a "magnificent love story".

However, the woman described a "coerced" 18-month relationship in which she was a victim of "control".

She had "tried to find solutions to get out of this hold he had on" her.

"I developed enormous fear towards (him). I couldn't find a way out or I didn't have the courage to do it, I was too ashamed."

After battling injury from her career, she had undergone leg surgery. Pain persisted and her state of health deteriorated.

She suffered anorexia, bulimia and depression and had even attempted suicide, the court was told.

"We had exchanged on social networks, and I agreed to a meeting because Dartevelle had promised to help me, and there I suffered a first rape," she explained.BSS