Cops: He Drugged 100+ Women During Job Interviews

A scandal that began with an inexplicable, agonizing urge to pee during a job interview has grown into one of France's most disturbing #MeToo-era cases. The New York Times details allegations against Christian Negre, a former senior Culture Ministry official accused of secretly dosing more than 100 women with powerful diuretics during job interviews and meetings over nearly a decade. A police search of his devices allegedly turned up a spreadsheet titled "Experiments P," listing 181 women and noting their reactions to the drug. Many described hours of sickness, lasting physical problems, and derailed careers.

"At the time, I didn't even know this type of attack existed," one of Negre's alleged victims tells the Guardian, noting that after her humiliating experience with him that led to her peeing outside near a bridge, "I didn't look for work; I thought I was useless." Another reported victim describes her own sudden need to urinate during an "interview" with Negre. "It was torture," she says, per the London Times. "I was white, I had tears in my eyes from the pain, but he could see this and still kept asking me so many questions."

Despite the scale of the accusations—248 potential victims identified so far, per the Times—the criminal case still hasn't gone to trial, and Negre, who once told a French paper he'd drugged "10 or 20" women, has since worked under another name as a consultant and university instructor. The drawn-out process is fueling anger over how France handles "chemical submission" and violence against women, and on whether the state failed to stop a powerful insider. More here.