A former candidate for “Koh-Lanta”, a show broadcast on TF1, was indicted in an open investigation into possible acts of sexual assault committed during the filming of the show in May 2018, it was announced on Friday March 29 the prosecution and the lawyers of the parties. A candidate had filed a complaint and a judicial investigation had been opened by the Nancy public prosecutor's office.
Eddy Guyot “was indicted on November 16, 2022. By judgment of March 14 [2024], the investigating chamber of the Nancy Court of Appeal rejected the request for the annulment of his indictment which he had filed on May 10, 2023,” Nancy public prosecutor François Capin-Dulhoste told Agence France-Presse, confirming information from Le Parisien.
“The plaintiff rightly demanded a DNA analysis of her clothing, including her leggings and panties. This expertise makes it possible to confirm his statements since male DNA was found,” declared Jérémie Assous, Eddy Guyot’s lawyer, who denies the facts. “This expertise innocent Eddy Guyot, since it was not his DNA that was found. But the complainant does not want to know who this DNA belongs to,” he said.
Filming of the show canceled
“The time that has passed, inherent to the criminal procedure, has in no way altered the determination” of the young woman, declared her lawyer, Léon Del Forno. “She looks forward with confidence that justice will be served and that Mr. Guyot will be found guilty for what he did to her,” he added.
At the start of the investigation, the woman, then aged 20, told investigators that during the filming of the show "she woke up while the accused was kissing her on mouth, before touching her clothes", according to the account given by the Nancy public prosecutor in 2018.
Adventure Line Productions, the production company for “Koh-Lanta”, canceled filming of the show after these denunciations. The next season was filmed a few months later. Launched in 2001 on TF1, “Koh-Lanta” is the French adaptation of the American adventure game Survivor, and owes its name to the Thai island where the first season took place.
