Photographer dies ‘a coward who raped me’
FRANCE/BRITAIN: A radio presenter in France who accused David Hamilton, the British photographer, of raping her when she was 13, yesterday called him a ‘‘coward’’ after he reportedly committed suicide.
Flavie Flament, one of at least four women allegedly assaulted in their early teens by Hamilton, said: ‘‘By his cowardice, he condemns us again to silence and the inability to see him convicted. The horror of this news will never be able to wipe out the horror of our sleepless nights.’’
Hamilton, 83, became famous in the 1970s for his provocative soft-focus portraits of young girls, often naked. He was found dead at his home in Paris on Saturday, a police source said. ‘‘The probable assumption is that he took his own life.’’
His death came three days after he said he would sue Flament over the claim, which he denied. He described her as the ‘‘instigator of a media lynch mob’’ and a publicity seeker.
Flament, 42, said she had learned of Hamilton’s death and described him as ‘‘the man who raped me when I was 13, the man who raped many young girls’’.
She added: ‘‘It is them that I am thinking of, [and] the injustice we were combating together.’’
Flament said the photographer assaulted her during a photo shoot in Cap d’agde, on the French Riviera, in 1987, while on holiday with her parents. She described the alleged rape in a book published last month, La Consolation. She did not name Hamilton in it, but the cover featured a picture of her as a young girl taken by him.
Later she confirmed it was Hamilton after other women contacted her and made similar accusations. Three alleged victims gave almost identical accounts. Telegraph Group