Victim’s horror at ‘rapist’s suicide’
THE woman who wanted to bring celebrity British photographer David Hamilton to justice for allegedly raping her as child was yesterday said to be ‘devastated’ by his death.
Flavie Flament, a French radio presenter, has told friends that she is inconsolable after hearing of the 83-year-old’s suspected suicide.
Mr Hamilton’s body was found in his Paris flat on Thursday night, just days after he pledged to take four women, including 42-year-old Ms Flament, to court for libelling him. She has published a book, The Consolation, which led to Mr Hamilton being publicly exposed as an alleged predatory paedophile. But his alleged victims could not take him to court because the age limit in France for pressing for charges of rape of a minor is 38. This led to Ms Flament and the three others, who have not been identified, being invited to work with the French authorities to bring Mr Hamilton to justice. Karina Hocine, Ms Flament’s editor, said: ‘Flavie is devastated. They told us it was a suicide. Make no mistake that we’re sharing a sense of horror at the situation and a sense of humanity. At the same time there is a sense of immense revolt because there will not now be any time for justice to do its work.’
London-born Mr Hamilton, who lived by himself in Montmartre, was found in ‘an asphyxiated state’ by emergency workers. Ms Flament has told how she was 13 when Mr Hamilton raped her in his luxury beach hut in Cap d’Agde, in the South of France, following a photoshoot.
Mr Hamilton had said of Ms Flament’s allegations: ‘Clearly the instigator of this media lynching is looking for her 15 minutes of fame by defaming me in her novel.
‘I will take several legal actions and it will be for the courts to condemn those responsible for this defamation.’