The mayor of the French city of Saint-Etienne has gone on trial, accused of ordering a video to be made of his deputy with a male prostitute. AdvertisementGael Perdriau, who denies blackmail charges, sat through a closed hearing near Gilles Artigues, his former number two, when what has become known as “the Sex-Tape of Saint-Etienne” was shown. “The order was to trap Gilles Artigues over his repressed homosexuality,” Kefi-Jerome said. Kefi-Jerome’s former companion, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, who acknowledged his own political ambitions, openly accused the mayor saying there was a “contract”. “It’s disconcerting: you admit everything to better accuse others,” Vernay told the witness.