A senior civil servant leading a campaign to ban pornography from French television has denied sworn witness statements that he once took part in sado-masochistic soirees run by a convicted serial killer.
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The claims first emerged earlier this month during a police investigation into allegations that Patrice Al�gre, a serial killer who is serving a life sentence for killing five women, was for years offered illegal protection by corrupt police and magistrates in the south-western city of Toulouse.
According to statements from several former prostitutes, Al�gre was not the lone psychopath he was made out to be at his trial last year. He is alleged to have acted for most of the 1990s as the leader of a sado-masochistic sex ring, supplying women and drugs for debauched, and at times violent, evenings frequented by senior policemen, judges, businessmen, sports personalities and politicians.
At least three of the former prostitutes named Mr Baudis - then the mayor - as a regular participant at the sessions, some of which were held at a disused chateau belonging to the town hall's social services department, the police said.
Jon Henley The Guardian UK May 21, 2003
