French civil servant drugged us to make us urinate on ourselves, say accusers
French Civil Servant Drugged Us, Say Accusers
Ninoda.com – Anaïs de Vos remembers the taste of that coffee and the sudden, overwhelming pressure in her bladder. She was 27, sitting across from Christian Nègre, a senior official at France's Ministry of Culture, during a job interview in July 2011. He had prepared the drink himself. "It tasted bad… so I drank about half," she recalls. What followed, she now believes, was the moment a French civil servant drugged us into helplessness under his watch.
The Interview That Became a Trap
After a few minutes in his office, Nègre suggested they take a walk. As they moved through Paris, Anaïs felt an uncontrollable urge to urinate that she could not explain. She told him she needed a toilet immediately. He met her gaze and asked, almost gleefully, whether she needed "a wee." She felt reduced to a child.
"I felt like a child. I thought it was really weird the way he looked at me, almost gleeful."
He pointed her toward a storage cupboard beneath a bridge over the Seine and told her to use it. Panicking, she insisted they keep walking. They reached the Louvre, but the public restrooms charged one euro, and her purse was locked in the ministry's offices. Nègre claimed he had no cash either. Desperate and in pain, she found a café willing to let her use its facilities. By the time she reached the door, she lost control and wet herself.
She was grateful, she says, that it happened out of his sight and that her dress made the accident easier to conceal. Three hours after the interview began, she felt "dizzy and drained." She did not receive the position. For years she carried a vague suspicion that something had been slipped into that coffee, but she dismissed it: "It's the Ministry of Culture. It's not possible."
From One Woman to Nearly 250
In 2019, police contacted Anaïs. They suspected she was among roughly 200 women Nègre had allegedly drugged during interviews between 2009 and 2018. "I was shocked," she says. "But I was happy to know I wasn't crazy. Something had happened that day." Dozens more alleged victims have since come forward, bringing the total close to 250.
Investigators concluded he had administered diuretics—drugs commonly prescribed for conditions such as high blood pressure—that force the body to produce excess urine. On his computer they found a spreadsheet titled "Experiments P," logging each woman's arrival time, the moment the substance was given, how long before she urinated, and what underwear she wore. Anaïs says police identified her through that document.
The probe opened in June 2018, after a colleague caught Nègre photographing a woman from beneath a table. He was suspended as regional director of cultural affairs and formally dismissed by the ministry in 2019. Prosecutors noted that in 2018 he told investigators he had "imposed humiliations" on interviewees. The case gained wider public attention in 2024 following the conviction of Gisele Pelicot's husband, who had sedated her and invited strangers to rape her while unconscious—a pattern French media now calls chemical submission.
Anaïs says the episode eroded her self-confidence and steered her toward a less ambitious career path. Yet she draws some comfort from the fact that the investigation confirmed what her body had known all along: that coffee was not just coffee.
FAQ
What substance did investigators say Nègre used? Police identified diuretics, medications that increase urine production and are typically prescribed for hypertension and related conditions.
How many women have come forward? Nearly 250 women allege they were drugged by Nègre during interviews spanning 2009 to 2018.
When did the investigation begin? It opened in June 2018 after a colleague witnessed Nègre taking a photograph of a woman from under a table. He was suspended shortly thereafter and dismissed in 2019.
What is "chemical submission"? The term describes using drugs to render a person compliant or unconscious. It entered mainstream French discourse in 2024 after the Pelicot trial, though the Anaïs de Vos and other accusers' cases predate that conviction by years.