BAYONNE, France: Prosecutors requested an eight-year jail term Tuesday for Eric Olhats – the former mentor of footballer Antoine Griezmann – as he stood trial in France on accusations of sexually assaulting minors.
Six men have accused the former football manager of acts they say he committed between 1997 and 2002, and in 2021 and 2022.
All the plaintiffs were football players under the age of 15 at Aviron Bayonnais FC when the alleged incidents took place.
The 62-year-old ex-Real Sociedad scout denied the charges of sexual assault, corruption of a minor and possession of child pornography images, in the Bayonne criminal court in southern France on Tuesday.
French footballer Griezmann is not among the plaintiffs, and he has told investigators that he neither experienced nor witnessed any such incidents.
“They have not told the truth as it happened,” Olhats said after hearing the facts presented at court and some of the plaintiffs’ testimonies.
Olhats “gradually established a ‘hold’, becoming ‘omnipresent’ in the lives of these teenagers”, argued Caroline Parizel of the prosecutor’s office.
Parizel requested an eight-year prison sentence for Olhats, as well as a mandatory treatment order and a ban on entering sports venues, contacting the alleged victims or engaging in activities involving minors.
The men who accused Olhats described him touching their legs or their backs during car journeys, forced masturbation and inappropriate texts sent during his time as their manager.
Their lawyers criticised Olhats’s “stubborn denial” and refusal to apologise for his actions.
Olhats is best-known for scouting Griezmann and acted as his sports advisor until 2017.
The former coach had already received a one-year suspended prison sentence in 1991 for acts of indecent assault on a minor committed in western France.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
