More than 50 women who have endured sexual assault or rape, whose cases have been blocked by France’s current legal time limits for pursuing criminal claims, have joined forces to demand sweeping reform of the country’s statute of limitations laws. The collective, calling themselves *Survivors’ Voices*, includes accusers of high-profile figures ranging from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his former business partner, modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, to late billionaire tycoon Mohammed Al Fayed. This marks the first time such a large group of survivors has come together publicly to push for legal change, drawing renewed attention to longstanding gaps in France’s justice system for sexual violence survivors.
Under current French legislation, adult survivors of sexual assault and rape have just 20 years from the date of the incident to file a criminal report. For survivors who were minors at the time of the abuse, the limit is extended to 30 years from the date the crime occurred. Members of the collective argue that this arbitrary cutoff sends a devastating message that their trauma and claims are less valid simply because more time has passed since the abuse took place. “Rape doesn’t expire, trauma doesn’t expire,” said Thysia Husiman, who alleges she was raped by Jean-Luc Brunel in Paris when she was 18 years old. Brunel, who was awaiting trial on charges of raping and trafficking minors, died by suicide in his Paris prison cell in 2022.
One of the most high-profile members of the collective is Lisa Brinkworth, a former BBC producer who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Elite Model Management head Gérald Marie while working undercover in 1998 to expose abuse in the global fashion industry. As part of a BBC *Donal McIntyre Investigates* documentary, Brinkworth posed as a model to infiltrate the agency, but she says BBC leadership pressured her to stay silent about the assault immediately after it happened, fearing the incident would derail the high-budget, high-profile production. She adds that senior BBC staff withheld key evidence from her when she attempted to move forward with a claim, and she did not formally file a report with French police until 2023 years after the alleged incident.
Brinkworth’s case against Marie was ultimately dismissed by French courts after two appeals, including a hearing before France’s highest judicial body, because it fell outside the 20-year statute of limitations. Now, she is taking her fight to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the current French law violates her right to access justice. Brinkworth also alleges that the BBC continues to block her efforts by refusing to hand over raw footage from the 1998 documentary, which she says contains her firsthand account of the assault recorded just minutes after it occurred. After the documentary aired in 1999, Elite Model Management sued the BBC for misrepresentation, and the two parties reached a confidential settlement that Brinkworth says the BBC has used to silence her about the assault for decades. She claims network representatives repeatedly told her she was legally barred from speaking publicly about any part of the production, including her own experience of abuse.
In a statement responding to the allegations, a lawyer for Gérald Marie noted that previous investigations into the claims against his client in France have been closed without further action. A BBC spokesperson pushed back on Brinkworth’s claims of obstruction, saying: “As we’ve always made clear, we take these matters very seriously and we know the situation is distressing for Lisa Brinkworth. The BBC is not trying to silence Ms Brinkworth; she is free to speak about the BBC investigation and her experiences, and has done so. We have already provided material to the French authorities to help Ms Brinkworth pursue the matter and investigators have assured us they have what they currently need from the BBC. We have also provided material to Ms Brinkworth directly. We will continue to do whatever we can to assist with the process.”
The collective’s call for reform comes amid a growing global reckoning with sexual violence, particularly in high-power industries like modeling, entertainment, and finance. Both Epstein and Brunel have died, leaving many of their accusers without any path to criminal justice, and survivors say changing the statute of limitations is a critical step toward holding perpetrators accountable and honoring the harm that survivors carry permanently.