Ballets roses

See also: Coral affair

 Ballets roses (VIPaedophile,  France/VIPaedophile,  Scandal)

The Butard hunting lodge where some of the parties took place.
Date	1959
Location	Paris,  Avignon,  France
Participants	Roger Wybot?
Description	French VIPaedophile event

The so-called Ballets roses (English:'Pink ballets') was a France/VIPaedophile expose that hit the headlines in France in 1959. It involved several prominent personalities including André Le Troquer, who had participated in sex parties with adolescent girls.

Many rumors surrounded this affair, which ranged from a more active participation of notable persons to sado-masochistic orgies. Even today, the expression “pink ballets” and its equivalent “blue ballets” when it comes to boys, commonly refers to similar criminal practices that may involve statutory rape. Also, the fact that the driver in the affair, Pierre Sorlut, previously had been the driver of the Gaullist Roger Wybot, the head of the intelligence service Direction de la surveillance du territoire, fueled the thesis of a conspiracy intended to destroy the socialist Le Troquer.

Expose

The affair began with the publication in the daily newspaper Le Monde dated January 10, 1959, of a brief story about the placing under arrest warrant, a few weeks earlier, of a so-called policeman accused of kidnapping minors.

On January 23, the political weekly paper Aux écoutes du monde expanded the information with an note "La petite folie du Butard": the police officer allegedly admitted to having organized exclusive parties with prominent personalities and minors in various places in the Paris region, including in the hunting lodge the Butard pavilion in the gardens of the Versailles palace. This hunting lodge located near Paris, in the forest of Fausses-Reposes, was at the time made available to the President of the National Assembly, André Le Troquer.

In Sexus Politicus (2006), journalists Christophe Deloire and Christophe Dubois write:

At the age of seventy-three, Le Troquer had taken part in bacchanals with his painter mistress, but especially with adolescent girls aged fourteen to twenty. On the program of collective festivities, like libertine dinners of the Regency: striptease sessions, naked posing, pleasures of the senses embellished with whipping, sensual choreographies. Festivities took place in the studio of the mistress, but also at the Palais-Bourbon, at the Opera or at the Pavillon du Butard, the secondary residence of the President of the Assembly. In these libertine evenings, Le Troquer embellished his old age in the presence of a cohort of young women, five of whom were minors. Of these five, four had been brought by a young man [Pierre Sorlut]. Le Troquer said of this young man that he was a boy who had good bearing, who seemed to be from a good family, who was likeable

André Le Troquer

Le Troquer in 1948

A letter addressed publicly to the editor of the weekly by the politician André Le Troquer to protest to the “published allegations an unreserved, categorical, absolute denial” gave a new dimension to this news item.

Indeed, André Le Troquer, 74, was a prominent figure in political life. Mutilated in the First World War where he had lost an arm, he was notably:

• SFIO deputy for the Seine from 1936 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1958;
• lawyer for Léon Blum during the Riom trial;
• member of the resistance close to General de Gaulle, of whom he was Minister at the Liberation in 1944;
• last President of the National Assembly of the Fourth Republic (January 1956- June 1958).

He was quickly charged, along with a dozen elderly and wealthy men; managers of shops in upper class neighborhoods or chic restaurants, a hairdresser on avenue Matignon, two police officers, etc, members of the “tout pourri” to use the expression of Le Canard enchaîné. Facts

The investigation established that Pierre Sorlut, who pretended to be a policeman (he was on call), had trapped young girls for three years (the youngest would have been 14 years old and the oldest 20 years old). according to some sources, 12 and 18 years old according to others , whereas the civil majority at the time was 21 years old and the sexual majority was 15 years old) by offering them to meet men who promised, through their connections, to promote their artistic career. Supplied with alcohol and marijuana, they performed amateur erotic shows for an audience, some of the choreographies of which were created by Elisabeth Pinajeff, known as "the countess of Pinajeff", a Romanian painter and false countess, ex-actress, then companion of André Le Troquer (hence the name of the affair, "Ballets roses"). Persuaded to promote the careers of their daughters, some mothers were consenting.

Sorlut had previously been the driver to the boss of the intelligence service Direction de la surveillance du territoire the Gaullist Roger Wybot.

Trials and convictions

At the end of the trial, by judgment dated June 9, 1960, twenty-two of the twenty-three defendants were convicted. The organizer, Pierre Sorlut, was sentenced to five years in prison, reduced to four years on appeal. Other prison sentences were pronounced, as well as fines, in particular against the Parisian hairdresser Arturo Guglielmi (by the Court of Appeal: 18 months suspended prison sentence and 6,000 francs fine), the restaurant owner Georges Biancheri (by the Court of Appeal: 18 months suspended prison sentence and 6,000 francs fine) and Jean Jessier (by the Court of Appeal: 18 months suspended prison sentence and 3,000 francs fine), commercial director of a fashion house.

As for André Le Troquer , the court did not hold it against him, either for having claimed it was a political machination intended to smear him, or for having hosted these exclusive parties in a palace owned by the state: taking into account a "long past of services rendered” and not wanting to “overwhelm an old man”, it only imposed a one-year suspended prison sentence on him and a fine of 3,000 francs. These convictions and sentences were confirmed in March 1961 by the 10th chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal.

After his release, Pierre Sorlut, the organizer of these pink ballets, opened a restaurant with his wife Suzanne (married in prison), Les Cornouailles , located at 97, rue des Martyrs in Paris. In 1965, his restaurant was robbed and vandalized.

Rumors

Many rumors surrounded this affair, which ranged from a more active participation of notables in the parties to sado-masochistic orgies organized in the Bourbon palace. Even today, the expression “pink ballets” and its equivalent “blue ballets” when it comes to boys, commonly refers to even more criminal practices that may involve rape. On the other hand, the fact that Pierre Sorlut was, during the year when he officially worked for the DST, the driver of its director, the Gaullist Roger Wybot, fueled the thesis of a plot intended to destroy the socialist Le Barter.

Its impact was mitigated by other news, whether politically, the Algerian war, or, judicially, the Lacaze affair.

Bibliography

René Coty's great-grandson, Benoît Duteurtre , deals with this affair in his book Ballets roses, published in 2009. During the program "Affaires sensible" presented by Fabrice Drouelle on France Inter "L'affaire des Ballets roses" , in 2015, Benoît Duteurtre assures that his book is more about André Le Troquer. Relating to a time when the offense of pedophilia did not yet exist as such, it shows how justice minimized the abuse of minors. The president of the court goes so far as to chastise young girls who are no longer children, accusing a decadent society and "the spirit of Saint-Germain-des-Prés". Duteurtre himself is not unaware of the responsibility of parents who hoped for a social elevation of their offspring, accepting, for example, places at the Opera. His research did not allow him to find any of the young girls, but he describes at length his meeting with Pierre Sorlut, the one who seduced young girls before inviting them to parties where they were made to consume alcohol before amusing the elderly. men. Sorlut subsequently ran a libertine club.

External links

Newspaper reporting

• The Courier-Journal, Louisville, (15 Feb 1959), Page 49 - Sex, Money, Politics - You Name It, French Scandals Have It
• Sunday Mirror, London, (22 May 1966), Page 4 - Schoolgirls in 'Orgies' Probe
• The Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, (25 Dec 1967), Page 34 - Parties in Lisbon are Swingers

 

Known Participant

All 1 of the participants already have pages here:

Participant
Roger Wybot

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References

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