French prosecutors have formally requested the Home Office to arrange an interview with a British woman as a potential witness in the ongoing rape investigation into David Matthews, the 81-year-old father-in-law of Pippa Middleton. The former racing driver and entrepreneur is accused of grooming and assaulting a 15-year-old girl on the French Caribbean island of St Barts in 1998, and then raping her in Paris a year later.
A source in the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed that the judicial investigation is ongoing and that requests for international assistance are under way with British authorities. Other sources suggest prosecutors are determined to conclude the case this year. A female investigating judge, the fourth to oversee the case, was appointed last September and is said to have brought new impetus to the investigation.
Matthews was arrested at Paris Orly airport eight years ago, after getting off a plane from St Barts, where he and his wife Jane own the luxury Eden Rock resort. He was charged with 'rape of a minor by a person with authority over his victim', which carries a maximum 15-year jail sentence in France. He has co-operated fully with prosecutors and strenuously denies the allegations.
The alleged victim, now in her 40s, is British and cannot be identified for legal reasons. The statute of limitations for prosecuting rape in France was 20 years at the time of Matthews' arrest, but was extended to 30 years for cases involving under-18s in 2018. A family source previously insisted Matthews had been 'set up' to humiliate him and his family, just months after his son James married Pippa Middleton in 2017.
The alleged victim's father told The Mail on Sunday that his daughter was deeply hurt by attempts to portray her as a fantasist, and that she had confided in her parents three years before the arrest. 'She told me, 'You don't know what I've been going through all these years'. Then it all came pouring out,' he said. 'We are all behind her and believe her.'
