French movie star Gérard Depardieu has been discovered responsible of sexual assaulting two ladies on a movie set at a trial in Paris and given a suspended jail time period of 18 months.
The 76-year-old actor was accused by the 2 ladies of groping them throughout work on a movie in 2021. Depardieu had denied the allegations in opposition to him and his lawyer stated he would attraction.
The courtroom in Paris discovered that one of many ladies, a set designer named Amélie, had given constant proof whereas the actor’s accounts had modified over time.
She informed reporters afterwards she was “very moved” and glad with the decision, which for her was “a victory, a serious step ahead”.
Depardieu was additionally convicted of assaulting an assistant director, known as Sarah.
The actor was not in courtroom to listen to the decision however was as a substitute engaged on a movie set within the Azores.
Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, the lawyer performing for the 2 ladies, stated she hoped the decision marked the tip of impunity for an artist within the movie trade.
“It is a victory for 2 ladies on a movie set however it’s a victory for all the ladies behind this case and I am pondering of all of Depardieu’s different victims,” she informed reporters.
The lawyer additionally famous the case had come to an finish hours earlier than the Cannes movie competition was attributable to begin.
The choose stated there was no purpose to doubt the phrase of the 2 ladies victims, who had informed the courtroom how Depardieu had touched them on intimate components of the physique, utilizing lewd language.
He positioned Depardieu on an inventory of intercourse offenders and ordered him to pay compensation of €1,000 (£840) every to Amélie and Sarah for “secondary victimisation”, a current innovation overlaying the extra struggling for the ladies from the trial itself.
Depardieu’s lawyer Jérémie Assous had accused the ladies of mendacity throughout their proof.
The alleged assaults befell in September 2021 when Depardieu was making a movie known as Les Volets Verts (The Inexperienced Shutters) about an ageing actor coming to phrases together with his declining powers.
This was Depardieu’s first trial on sexual assault prices. A number of different ladies have made comparable allegations within the media, and an alleged rape case may come to trial sooner or later.
After the trial, the actor was invited to hitch his shut buddy and fellow actor Fanny Ardant for a film-shoot within the Azores.
On the finish of the trial in Paris in late March, prosecutor Laurent Man stated: “It is completely attainable to be a superb actor and an amazing father – and nonetheless commit a criminal offense.
“You aren’t right here to cross judgment on French cinema. You’re right here to evaluate Gérard Depardieu, simply as you’d some other citizen.”
Claude Vincent, representing one of many two ladies plaintiffs, described Depardieu as a “misogynist” and a “case-study in sexism”.
Depardieu’s lawyer had demanded an acquittal and known as the plaintiffs’ group “extra militants than legal professionals”.
“They can’t bear that there ought to even be a defence. They assume any defence is a supplementary assault,” he informed the courtroom.
The primary plaintiff – 54-year-old set decorator Amélie – informed the courtroom that after a minor argument with Depardieu, he caught her between his legs and held her by the hips.
The second lady – the movie’s assistant director Sarah who’s 34 – stated the actor had touched her buttocks and breasts by means of her garments on three separate events. Sarah will not be her actual identify and she or he was not in courtroom to listen to the decision.
Depardieu denied the allegations, saying solely that he might need touched the ladies by accident or to maintain his stability.
On the finish of the hearings, Depardieu stated: “My identify has been dragged by means of the mud by lies and insults.
“A trial could be a very particular expertise for an actor. Seeing all this anger, the police, the press. It is like being in a science fiction movie, besides it is not science fiction. It is life.”
He thanked the prosecution and defence groups for giving him insights into how courts function. “These classes could also be an inspiration for me someday if I get to play a lawyer,” he stated.
Depardieu stated he had not labored as an actor for 3 years because the sexual allegations in opposition to him started to flow into.
Nonetheless earlier this month it was reported that he had begun work within the Azores on a movie directed by his buddy, the actress Fanny Ardant. Depardieu is taking part in a magician on a mysterious island, in keeping with media stories.
Ardant appeared with Depardieu in Les Volets Verts and spoke in his defence on the trial.
“Genius – in no matter type it takes – carries inside it a component of the extravagant, the untamed, the harmful. (Depardieu) is the monster and the saint,” she stated.
One other veteran French actress took Depardieu’s facet on Monday. In a uncommon interview with French tv, Brigitte Bardot, 90, deplored how “gifted individuals who contact the buttocks of a woman are consigned to the deepest dungeon.”
“Feminism is not my factor,” Bardot stated. “Personally, I like males.”
