A senior French civil servant is under formal investigation for drugging, sexual assault, and privacy violations after nearly 250 women accused him of slipping diuretics into their coffee and tea during job interviews between 2009 and 2018. Christian Nègre, a former regional director of cultural affairs at the Ministry of Culture, allegedly conducted "walking interviews" during which victims lost bladder control while he secretly photographed them and logged details in an Excel spreadsheet titled "Experiments P".
Police contacted victims including Anaïs de Vos and Marie-Hélène Brice in 2019 after a colleague caught Nègre photographing a woman under a desk in 2018. He was suspended and dismissed from the ministry the following year.
The case has remained unresolved for seven years, and the Fondation des Femmes says Nègre remains employed in human resources. In response, French lawmaker Sandrine Josso launched a pilot programme in 2026 allowing women who suspect they have been drugged to undergo toxicology testing without filing a formal complaint.