Shown the photo, Mr. Girard said that it appeared to be a personal picture that Mr. Hmaïd had “stolen” or photographed after a swim.
Mr. Hmaïd said each encounter left him disgusted.
“I can say that I was consenting,” he said. “But overall, I was caught in a somewhat strange trap. My parents encouraged me to see him. Me, I was hoping for something, a job, something like that out of it.”
Mr. Hmaïd recalled being in awe of the older man and his friends, who effortlessly engaged in witty conversations and displayed a “refined way of unpacking life, human relations.” Spending time with them, he said, taught him everything from good table manners to proper French.
But by his mid-20s, feeling exploited, Mr. Hmaïd said he began trying to hold Mr. Girard accountable, leading to the end of their ties.
Mr. Hmaïd said he told his family about the abuse in the late 1990s, estranging him from his father and devastating his mother.
“She was stunned, she was in tears,” said Mr. Hmaïd’s brother, Aymen Hmaïd, 39.
His father, Nouri Hmaïd, 75, told The Times that the cousin who had gotten Aniss the summer job in Hammamet had warned him that Mr. Girard “was not a good man — he took advantage of boys.”
Still, he said, he did not worry for his son, who still feels betrayed though he believes that his parents were naïve.
Source : Nytimes
