Tuesday 28 June 2022 01:45 AM French fashion tsar dismisses claims he hired hitman who shot dead Jill Dando ... trends now
A French fashion boss accused of hiring a bungling hitman who murdered Jill Dando instead of a BBC journalist who exposed him as a sex abuser has described the allegations as ‘fanciful nonsense’.
Gérald Marie, 72, is said to have used the Russian Mafia to try and kill Lisa Brinkworth, who is now 55.
But their gunman may have assassinated TV presenter Ms Dando by mistake, according to extraordinary allegations contained in legal papers filed in Paris.
They are part of an enquiry into multiple rape complaints against Marie, ex-husband of supermodel Linda Evangelista.
Ms Dando was 37 when she was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, south west London, in a notorious cold case dating back 23 years.
Miss Dando was gunned down on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, west London, in 1999
Miss Brinkworth (pictured recently, left; and in the 1990s, right) claimed she was sexually assaulted in 1998 while working undercover alongside Donal MacIntyre to expose sex crimes in the fashion industry. France's statute of limitations, however, means sexual abuse claims must be reported within 20 years. Lawyers for Miss Brinkworth have filed papers to the Paris prosecutor arguing that the statute does not apply in her case due to years fearing for her safety
Now Ms Brinkworth claims Marie, former boss of the Elite agency, wanted her dead because she claimed he sexually assaulted her in 1998 while she was working undercover to expose crimes in the fashion industry.
In the court papers, Ms Brinkworth’s lawyers reference an alleged conversation witnessed by a former Elite executive in which Marie considered hiring the Russian mafia to ‘deal with a problem’.
The papers read: ‘Shortly afterwards, in April 1999, Jill Dando, another BBC journalist, was shot dead.’
France’s statute of legal limitations for prosecutions at the time stated that sexual assault had to be reported within three years, and rapes within 10 years.
Marie therefore claims that the links with the Dando case have been ‘made up so as to try and get the statute of limitations removed.’
Documents submitted to a Paris court suggested that Marie hired a Russian hitman to murder Ms Brinkworth
Gerald Marie, pictured with ex-wife Linda Evangelista, is being investigated over alleged sexual assaults and rapes
One of his legal team said on Monday: ‘It’s fanciful nonsense aimed at suggesting that Lisa Brinkworth was in fear of her life, and so was too scared to report the alleged attack within a reasonable time limit.
‘In fact, Lisa Brinkworth made no effort to report any kind of sexual abuse at the time, and only started to take action decades later.’
Ms Brinkworth claims she was kept in a safe house following the broadcasting of her exposé on the BBC’s MacIntyre Investigates programme, presented by veteran journalist Donal MacIntyre.
Ms Brinkworth also claims that the BBC did not want her taking legal action, according to the legal papers.
They say that Omar Harfouch, who is now 53 and a Lebanese businessman and politician, was with senior Elite management at a Paris restaurant in 1999, when they discussed the MacIntytre programme.
Jill Dando is pictured with her fiance Alan Farthing in 1999, months before she was shot dead on the doorstep of her home in Fulham. A French court has heard sensational claims that a Russian hitman hired to assassinate journalist Lisa Brinkworth may have mistaken her for Ms Dando. Lawyers pointed out that Ms Dando's fiance Mr Farthing was also Ms Brinkworth's doctor
‘We’re in the shit,’ Marie is said to have told the others, after ‘learning that a BBC report about Donal MacIntyre and Lisa Brinkworth going undercover for six months at Elite will soon broadcast.’
Ms Brinkworth, then 31, had pretended to be a fashion model, and Gerald Marie said: ‘I got tricked’.
He then described Ms Brinkworth as a ‘huge problem’, to which Vitali Leiba, an Elite agent based in Moscow and allegedly with strong links to the Russian Mafia replied: ‘Consider it done’.
Mr Harfouch claims this was an oblique reference to ‘making [Brinkworth] disappear,’ according to the legal papers.
The Harfouch testimony is now being used by lawyers for 15 plaintiffs - including Ms Brinkworth - to try and get the statute of limitations thrown out.
In a file sent to Paris prosecutors, William Bourdon, Amélie Lefebvre and Anne-Claire Lejeune refer to ‘the fear of physical reprisals, going as far as a contract killing, preventing a filing of a complaint within the required time frame by Lisa Brinkworth, who accuses Gerald Marie of sexual assault in the context of her report.’
The lawyers’ report adds: ‘They are therefore requesting, in an unprecedented approach, an extension of the limitation period, paving the way for a future trial.’
Paris prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into Marie in September 2020, after he was accused of rape and sexual assault by the 15 women.
However, all of the alleged facts took place in the 1980s and 1990s, making them time barred as far as prosecutions are concerned.
No charges have been brought, and
