Former French senator jailed for spiking MP’s drink with intent to sexually assault her

A former French senator has been sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of drugging a female MP with the intent to sexually assault her.

Joel Guerriau must serve 18 months of the term behind bars and has been ordered to pay Sandrine Josso €5,000 (£4,350) in damages for causing emotional distress.

The 68-year-old is said to have invited Ms Josso, a member of the French National Assembly, to his flat in Paris in November 2023, where he admitted to spiking her drink with MDMA.

Guerriau – who served as senator for Loire-Atlantique from 2011 to 2025 – claimed it was an accident and that he had no intention of assaulting her. His lawyers are appealing the verdict.

Court documents quoted by French media say Ms Josso visited Guerriau’s home to celebrate his re-election when she began feeling unwell after drinking from a champagne glass.

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The drink tasted unusual and Ms Josso thought “maybe it was a bad champagne” but when Guerriau insisted they toast again, the 50-year-old became alarmed.

Ms Josso noticed her heart was racing and left the flat to visit a hospital with the help of a friend. A toxicology report revealed that she had three times the recreational dose of MDMA in her body.

"I had gone to visit a friend and I discovered an aggressor," she said while giving evidence on Monday.

“He looked at me insistently, I'd never seen him that way. I didn't want to show him my weakness, because I was worried that if I told him I wasn't feeling well, he would've forced me to lie down.”

Guerriau said that he had been going through a difficult mental health period and had been suffering from depression when the incident occurred. He had been meaning to take the drug himself the night before and had accidentally administered it to Ms Josso instead, he claimed.

“In short, I am an idiot”, he said.

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“I feel sorry for Sandrine,” he told the court. “I am disgusted with myself, with my recklessness and my stupidity.”

He said: “We don't talk about the effects of these drugs enough. All I want is to speak out on the dangers of these products.”

The former senator said that he had no recollection about making several internet searches around ecstasy and said: “I was on the train, thoughts and ideas just come to you”, adding that government members need to show interest in “all current events”.

Ms Josso was forced to take six months off from work due to the ordeal and had to have four teeth removed due to grinding her teeth from the stress.

Prosecutor Benjamin Coulon noted that Guerriau had voted for the law that made it illegal to administer a harmful substance with intent to commit rape or sexual assault.

“What I went through is still very painful,” Ms Josso said. “Psychological trauma feels like being frozen in time... I jump at the slightest thing. I've become very vulnerable.”