French former senator Joël Guerriau has been convicted of drugging a female MP with ecstasy, intending to sexually assault or rape her.
The Paris Criminal Court handed down the verdict yesterday, finding the 68-year-old ex-senator guilty of administering a harmful substance without consent with the aim of committing rape or sexual assault, as well as illegal possession of narcotics.
Guerriau, who represented Loire-Atlantique for the centrist Horizon party in the Senate from 2011 until his resignation in October 2025, was sentenced to four years in prison, of which 18 months must be served behind bars . The remainder is suspended along with a five-year ban from holding public office and a mandatory order for psychological or psychiatric treatment.
The court also ordered him to pay the victim €9,000 in damages.
No immediate incarceration was enforced as the sentence carries a deferred detention order and Guerriau’s lawyers immediately announced an appeal, suspending enforcement pending a higher-court review.
The case centres on events of November 14, 2023, when Guerriau invited fellow centrist politician Sandrine Josso, then a 50-year-old MoDem MP from the same department, to his Paris apartment in the 6th arrondissement to celebrate his re-election.
French senator Joël Guerriau, 66, was arrested by police on November 15 on suspicion of having drugged a woman with the aim of having sex with her. https://t.co/ROOXBwKSOX
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) November 17, 2023
Josso, who had known Guerriau for about a decade as a political ally, accepted what she believed would be a friendly drink.
She later testified that after sipping champagne he served her, she felt violently unwell, describing a sensation of impending death, disorientation and terror that Guerriau intended to rape her to “satisfy an urge”.
Spotting him handling a small transparent bag and noticing odd behaviour, including repeatedly turning lights on and off, she fled the flat, alerted two fellow MPs who took her to hospital and filed a complaint the next day.
Toxicology confirmed a high dose of MDMA (ecstasy) of about twice the recreational level in Josso’s blood.
Police searches of Guerriau’s home uncovered 30 grammes of the drug, along with associated paraphernalia.
Digital forensics revealed internet searches a month earlier on terms linking ecstasy, GHB and rape, which Guerriau claimed related to parliamentary work or concern for a friend’s daughter.
He was taken into custody by officers as part of a flagrante delicto investigation, meaning they did not need to request his parliamentary immunity to be lifted.
He insisted the spiking was accidental: He had allegedly poured MDMA into a glass the previous night intending to consume it himself amid depression, had forgotten about it and unwittingly served the same flute to Josso.
He denied any sexual intent, describing himself as an “idiot” and expressing his devastation. The court rejected his defence as implausible given the evidence of premeditation and the deliberate administration of a substance “well above recreational levels”.
Prosecutor Benjamin Coulon had sought a four year jail term, highlighting the irony that Guerriau as a senator had voted for the 2018 law creating the specific offence of administering substances to facilitate rape or assault, carrying up to five years and a €75,000 fine.
Coulon stressed the “duty of exemplarity” for an elected official who had “devoted part of his life to French democracy” yet committed a grave breach.
The verdict comes amid heightened national awareness of drug-facilitated sexual violence, following the high-profile 2024 conviction of Dominique Pelicot who was sentenced to 20 years for drugging his wife Gisèle and inviting dozens of men to rape her over years.
Guerriau was expelled from his Horizons party (part of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance) shortly after the allegations surfaced. The affair has fuelled debate on accountability among politicians and the prevalence of soumission chimique, or drug-facilitated crime/sexual assault, in France.
Since filing her complaint the day after the incident, Josso has become a prominent campaigner against drug-facilitated sexual violence. She joined associations fighting it and co-authored a parliamentary report calling for a national awareness campaign, better victim support and health authority guidelines.
After the verdict, she expressed “huge relief” for herself and other victims, hoping it would aid their healing and encourage more to come forward.
Une député, @sandrinejossoan , testée positive à l’ecstasy au petit matin. Après une soirée chez le sénateur #JoelGuerriau , accusé de l’avoir droguée pour abuser d’elle sexuellement. C’est l’histoire à peine croyable que nous vous racontions dans @Cdenquete en juin dernier. pic.twitter.com/Es11nkWJtz
— Julien Cressens (@julien_cressens) January 25, 2026
