The Court of Cassation Rejected the Appeal of TV Host Jean-Marc Morandini (CNews), Convicted on Appeal for Corruption of Minors Involving Three Adolescents.
Condemned, condemned, condemned. Prosecuted for corruption of minors for sexually charged messages sent to three adolescents between 2009 and 2016, Jean-Marc Morandini has lost his trial at first instance, then his appeals to the court of appeal and to the Court of Cassation. On this Wednesday, January 14, the Court of Cassation indeed rendered final the conviction of the television host on the CNews channel.
“After examining both the admissibility of the appeal and the procedural documents, the Court of Cassation notes that there exists, in this case, no grounds capable of admitting the appeal”, the ruling stated, relayed by the Agence France-Presse (AFP). In the first instance (in December 2022), the host had been sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probationary period, before his sentence was increased on appeal in March 2025 to two years of imprisonment with probation and a 20,000 euro fine. The Paris Court of Appeal had furthermore imposed a definitive ban on practicing a profession in contact with minors and confirmed his inclusion on the database of offenders against minors (Fijais).
Morandini in cassation for sexual harassment
In this case, the television presenter, now aged 60, was accused of sending messages to two 15-year-olds in 2013 and 2015-2016, one describing sexual scenarios and the other asking him to send a naked photo of himself. The presenter had also in 2009 asked a 16-year-old to undress and to masturbate during an audition for a remake of a film that never materialized. During his trial, the accused claimed to have no memory of this episode and challenged it, invoking a form of “humor” and a “virtual” game.
A prominent figure at CNews, which has always kept him on air despite his convictions, Jean-Marc Morandini was also convicted of sexual harassment toward a young actor. In this case, he faced charges for having encouraged in 2015 young actors, aged 19 to 26 at the time of the events, to expose themselves naked for the auditions of a web series titled Les Faucons, of which he was the producer. There too, the presenter received in appeal six months more than at first instance, and appealed to cassation. This last recourse has not yet been examined.
