French film star Gérard Depardieu found guilty of sexual assault
(Picture: AP)
French actor Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty of sexual assault.
One of the highest-profile and most discussed #MeToo cases in France, a court in Paris found Depardieu, 76, guilty of sexual assault against two different women on a film set in 2021.
Depardieu had repeatedly denied all allegations made against him, but Judge Thierry Donard was unconvinced by Depardieu and his legal team.
The public prosecutor has asked the court to hand Depardieu a suspended 18-month prison sentence and a 20,000 euro fine (£16,811).
The court found that one of the victims, a set designer named Amélie, had given consistent evidence while the actor’s accounts had changed repeatedly. He has also been convicted of assaulting an assistant director identified as a woman named Sarah.
Amélie told the court that after a disagreement with Depardieu, he caught her between his legs and held her by the hips before touching her buttocks, genitals, and breasts while muttering obscenities.
Sarah said the actor touched her rear and breasts through her clothes on three separate occasions.
The La Vie En Rose star denied all the allegations, saying that he might have touched the women accidentally or to keep his balance, but not intentionally.
The assaults took place in September 2021 on the set of a film called Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in which Depardieu plays an aging actor.
Depardieu was working on a film set in the Azores at the time of the verdict reading, so he was absent from the courtroom.
At the end of the hearing in Paris in late March, prosecutor Laurent Guy said: ‘It’s perfectly possible to be an excellent actor and a great father – and still commit a crime.
‘You are not here to pass judgment on French cinema. You are here to judge Gérard Depardieu, just as you would any other citizen.’
This was Depardieu’s first trial on sexual assault charges, but several other alleged victims have made similar claims in the media against the actor.
Additionally, an alleged rape case against Depardieu could come to trial in the future.
At the end of the hearings, Depardieu said: ‘My name has been dragged through the mud by lies and insults.
‘A trial can be a very special experience for an actor. Seeing all this anger, the police, the press. It’s like being in a science fiction film, except it’s not science fiction. It’s life.’
He also said: ‘These lessons may be an inspiration for me one day if I get to play a lawyer.’
Depardieu also told the court he was not the ‘vulgar, rude, trashy person who makes fun of people’ that he has been portrayed as in the course of the trial. ‘I respect people. I like to help people,’ he said.
Iconic actress Brigette Bardot spoke out in Depardieu’s defense on Monday. In a rare interview, the 90-year-old bemoaned how ‘talented people who touch the buttocks of a girl are consigned to the deepest dungeon.’
‘Feminism isn’t my thing,’ she said. ‘Personally, I like men.’
From the time Depardieu was accused initially, it was evident that the trial went beyond two sexual assaults involving one of France’s most celebrated film stars.
What unfolded in the courtroom became part of a much-needed reckoning with the country’s fixation on the sensual, its unquestioning reverence for artists, and the slow progress of the #MeToo movement in France.
While this was the first case brought against Depardieu to go to trial, more than 20 women have accused him of sexual abuse, primarily by speaking to French news outlets like Mediapart.
Six of these accusers have taken legal action, but two of the cases were dropped because they were past the statute of limitations.
Depardieu is one of France’s most acclaimed actors and a cornerstone of the country’s cinema industry.
Rising to prominence in the 1970s with films like Les Valseuses and 1900, he became an international star with performances in Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Card, and The Last Metro.
The versatile movie star has served as muse to legendary directors such as François Truffaut, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Jean-Luc Godard and starred in over 230 films over five decades.
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