Models 'raped, groomed and sold by agents' in fashion's 'darkest secret'

Four women share details of sexual abuse they allegedly faced while working as models, as they appear in a new documentary called Scouting For Girls: Fashion's Darkest Secret

Model Carre Sutton was just 17 when she says she was repeatedly raped by one of the industry's most powerful men.

Gerald Marie was married to Linda Evangelista - the famous supermodel - but when his wife was out of town, Sutton says she was sexually assaulted by the French agent "sometimes several times a week" over multiple weeks in 1986.

"He basically forced himself on me and raped me," Sutton says in a tearful interview for a new documentary.

"I remember being so devastated and terrified."

Now aged 53, Sutton - who rose to fame under the name Carre Otis - tells Sky News she would be "happy to go face to face" in court with Marie, who vehemently denies all sexual abuse allegations against him from several women.

There is no suggestion Evangelista - who divorced Marie in 1993 - knew of the alleged abuse.

She issued a statement in 2020 praising the "courage and strength" of her former partner's accusers, saying: "Hearing them now, and based on my own experiences, I believe that they are telling the truth."

Sutton is one of at least 11 women who have reportedly filed testimonies to a Paris prosecutor claiming they were sexually assaulted by Marie, the former European head of Elite modelling agency.

Sutton and three other women share details of sexual abuse they allegedly faced while working as models in a new documentary called Scouting For Girls: Fashion's Darkest Secret.

Sutton - who was once married to actor Mickey Rourke - says people within the industry were "totally complicit" to the abuse of models, particularly in Paris.