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French movie star Gerard Depardieu has been discovered responsible of sexually assaulting two ladies in the course of the filming of a film in 2021 and can serve an 18-month suspended jail sentence.
He was additionally fined €29,040, and the courtroom requested that he be registered in France’s nationwide intercourse offender database.
Depardieu, 76, was convicted of groping two feminine workers: a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant in the course of the filming of Les Volets Verts.
The set dresser mentioned Depardieu trapped her between his legs in a slim hall earlier than grabbing maintain of her hips and groping different elements of her physique, together with her chest. She additionally mentioned he used an obscenity to ask her to the touch his penis and urged he needed to rape her.
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She instructed the courtroom that the actor’s calm and cooperative perspective in the course of the trial bore no resemblance to his behaviour at work.
The different defendant mentioned that Depardieu groped her buttocks and breasts on three separate events on-set.
The case was extensively considered as a post-#MeToo motion take a look at of how French society and its movie trade would deal with allegations of sexual misconduct involving high-profile people.
Depardieu, who has denied the accusations, didn’t attend the listening to in Paris. His lawyer mentioned the actor would enchantment the choice.
Following his conviction, Carine Durrieu Diebolt, the set dresser’s lawyer, mentioned, “It is the victory of two women, but it is the victory of all the women beyond this trial.”
French actor Gerard Depardieu is seen leaving the Tribunal de Paris courthouse on March 24, 2025. Depardieu was discovered responsible of sexually assaulting two ladies in the course of the filming of a film in 2021.
JULIEN DE ROSA / Getty Images
“Today, we hope to see the end of impunity for an artist in the world of cinema,” she continued. “I think that with this decision, we can no longer say that he is not a sexual abuser. And today, as the Cannes Film Festival opens, I’d like the film world to spare a thought for Gerard Depardieu’s victims,” she concluded.
Depardieu instructed the courts he has made greater than 250 movies all through his illustrious profession, propelling him to the top of French cinema. In 1991, he obtained an Oscar nomination for his efficiency in Cyrano de Bergerac because the eponymous lead.
In current years, the actor has been accused of misconduct by greater than 20 ladies, however solely the sexual assault case went to courtroom. Several different circumstances had been dropped attributable to an absence of proof or a statute of limitations.
During the four-day trial in March, Depardieu denied the accusations, saying he’s “not like that.”
Nonetheless, he acknowledged that he had used vulgar and sexualized language on the movie set and that he grabbed the set dresser’s hips throughout an argument. He denied that his behaviour was sexual.
The courtroom’s three-judge panel determined that Depardieu’s explanations had been “unpersuasive” and “not credible” and pressured each accusers’ “constant, reiterated and substantiated declarations.”
The courtroom additionally mentioned Depardieu’s defence staff employed an “aggressive” defence technique and thought of their feedback in courtroom to have brought on extra hurt to the plaintiffs, due to this fact justifying greater fines.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Jérémie Assous, mentioned he regretted that the courtroom “considered that questioning the accusations is an additional assault,” including that one of these defence, “even in this type of trial, is no longer accepted.”
— With recordsdata from The Associated Press
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