‘I was raped 400 times’: French tennis star Angelique Cauchy reveals the hell she endured at the hands of her coach when she was 12 – and how he convinced her she had AIDS until she was 18
- Coach Andrew Geddes was sentenced to 18 years for raping four girls aged 12 to 17
French tennis star Angelique Cauchy has revealed that her coach raped her 400 times from the age of 12 and even falsely convinced her she had AIDS.
The former tennis player told the French parliament about her horrific ordeal with Andrew Geddes, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of four young girls in 2021.
During his trial, the court was told of the 55-year-old’s brutal sexual abuse – which he often recorded – at his home, in his car or at the tennis club.
Ms Cauchy, now 36, started working with Geddes at the Sarcelles Tennis Club, Paris, in 1999, when she was 12 and France’s second junior player.
Within a few months the abuse began, with the coach telling her, “You know, it happens sometimes in coach-student relationships, we spend a lot of time together, it’s normal.”
Angelique Cauchy (pictured testifying in French Parliament) has revealed she was raped 400 times by her coach at the age of 12
Ms Cauchy, now 36, began working with Andrew Geddes at the Sarcelles Tennis Club in Paris
She said that initially Geddes would take her to see Paris Saint German FC play at their home ground. Over two years, she said the relationship quickly became abusive and he raped her 400 times.
In harrowing detail, she told Palais Bourbon how he raped her three times a day over a two-week period at a training camp.
‘I have experienced the worst two weeks of my life. I’ve often thought about suicide. He raped me three times a day. The first night he asked me to go to his room and I didn’t, then he came into mine. “I was in jail,” she said.
She described how he manipulated her into voluntarily visiting his room at night.
“The nights after, it seems crazy, but I went there alone and took those thirteen steps that separated me from his room,” she explained.
Geddes then continued to emotionally manipulate and gaslight Mrs. Cauchy, convincing her that he had given her AIDS.
‘One day he came to tell me: ‘I have AIDS, that’s for sure, I gave it to you.’ In the late 90s it was something much scarier than it is now, it paralyzed me. I lived from age 13 to 18 and thought I had AIDS. But he lied to me just to destroy me. It was perhaps even more destructive than the rape,” she said France Info.
When a member of the tennis club complained about Geddes’ predatory and abusive behaviour, the club’s chairman is said to have replied: ‘Yes, but he brings us titles.’
In July, an investigation was launched into ‘operational shortcomings within sports federations, the sports movement and governing bodies’. Following testimony at the Palais Bourbon this summer, the report is expected to be released in December.