Prosecutors in Paris are investigating allegations by former Dutch supermodel Karen Mulder that she was raped by a European royal, celebrities and leading figures in the French modeling industry.
Examining magistrate Jean-Pierre Guary will lead the investigation. London’s Independent reports that Guary will be looking at physical and other evidence which appear to corroborate part of Mulder’s story.
Mulder, 33, made the allegations last month while taping a French television program before a studio audience. The show, called Tout le Monde en Parle (Everyone is Talking About It), decided to edit out her comments because they were considered too devastating and potentially libelous. Although the interview was never broadcast and the audience was sworn to secrecy, the local media reported the comments, adding that the blonde model fled the program in tears.
Mulder, it turns out, had made the same allegations in a statement to French police several days earlier. The public prosecutors office in Paris confirmed with the paper that a criminal investigation for “rape by persons unknown” was in fact underway.
The show, taped on Oct. 31, tapped into allegations by a BBC documentary two years ago that young models were often sexually exploited by leading figures in the modeling industry. At that point, Mulder broke down into tears and said she had been persistently raped since childhood up until last April.
Mulder, who retired from modeling last year, is one of the original supermodels of the early ’90s alongside Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell. Discovered during Elite’s Look of the Year contest, she also became one of the faces of the Guess? jeans advertising campaign. She is currently being treated in a private psychiatric clinic in Paris for acute distress.
