Former coach of French footballer Antoine Griezmann sentenced six-year in prison for child abuse

The former mentor of French football star Antoine Griezmann was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison for sexually assaulting minors. Six men had accused Eric Olhats, 62, of acts they said he committed between 1997 and 2002, and in 2021 and 2022. All the plaintiffs were footballers under the age of 15 at Aviron Bayonnais FC when the incidents took place. Griezmann was not among the plaintiffs and told investigators that he neither experienced nor witnessed any such incidents.

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The sentence handed down by a court in the southern French city of Bayonne also included five years of judicial supervision and a mandatory treatment order for Olhats, a former scout for Spanish side Real Sociedad.

He was ordered to pay 30,000 euros ($34,482) in damages to the plaintiffs, and banned from entering sports venues or engaging in activities involving minors.

Olhats had denied the charges, saying "they have not told the truth as it happened", after hearing the evidence and some of the plaintiffs' testimonies.

Caroline Parizel of the prosecutor's office had requested an eight-year prison term, arguing that Olhats "gradually established a 'hold', becoming 'omnipresent' in the lives of these teenagers".

The men who accused Olhats described him touching their legs or their backs during car journeys, forced masturbation and inappropriate texts sent during his time as their manager.

Their lawyers criticised Olhats's "stubborn denial" and refusal to apologise for his actions.

Olhats is best known for scouting Griezmann and acted as his sports adviser until 2017.

The former coach received a one-year suspended prison sentence in 1991 for acts of indecent assault on a minor committed in western France.