Paris, France | AFP | Thursday 08/22/2024 – Gérard Depardieu, who will be tried in October for sexual violence against two women during a film shoot, risks a second trial: the Paris prosecutor’s office has requested his appearance before the departmental criminal court for rape and sexual assault on the actress Charlotte Arnould.
The prosecution told AFP on Thursday, confirming information from BFMTV, that it had requested on August 14 that the actor be referred to the departmental criminal court for “rape by digital penetration and sexual assault on August 7 and 13, 2018, to the detriment of Charlotte Arnould”, aged 28.
The 75-year-old French cinema giant has been under investigation since December 16, 2020 as part of this investigation, opened after a complaint with constitution of civil party by the actress who accuses him of two rapes at the actor’s home, located in the 6th arrondissement of the capital.
It is now up to the investigating judge in charge of this case to decide whether or not to order a trial.
Contacted, one of Mr. Depardieu’s lawyers did not immediately respond to AFP.
In a letter published in Le Figaro in October 2023, the actor, accused by other women of sexual violence, had contested the accusations. “Never, ever, have I abused a woman,” he had said, referring to Charlotte Arnould’s accusations.
According to him, “a woman came to my house for the first time, with a light step, going up to my room of her own free will. She says today that she was raped there.” “There was never any constraint, violence or protest between us,” he assured.
And he continued: “If she was under control, it was under her own control, she was never under my control.”
– “Huge step forward” –
Charlotte Arnould “had initially filed a complaint in August 2018 in a police station in Bouches-du-Rhône, then the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor’s office relinquished jurisdiction in favor of the Paris prosecutor’s office, which has territorial jurisdiction,” recalled the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Following investigations carried out by the 3rd judicial police district, “the procedure was closed on the grounds that the facts appeared insufficiently characterised” in June 2019, he added.
The actress then filed a complaint with civil action on March 10, 2020 in Paris with the senior investigating judge.
“After reviewing the procedure, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested on July 31, 2020 the opening of a judicial investigation for rape,” the public prosecutor’s office said.
After his indictment, which was confirmed by the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, the actor was confronted with the young woman on June 19, 2023 in the office of the investigating judge. He was then re-heard on September 13, 2023.
These requisitions “are the result of a long investigation which allowed us to gather the elements which corroborate my client’s words”, reacted to the AFP Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, lawyer of Charlotte Arnould.
“For her, it is a huge step forward full of hope while waiting for the order of the investigating judge which will close the investigation,” she added.
Winner of the César Award for Best Actor in 1981 for his role in “The Last Metro” (1980) by François Truffaut and in 1991 for “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1990) by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Gérard Depardieu was for several decades considered a sacred monster of French cinema, known throughout the world, before being caught up in his excesses and accusations of sexual violence.
He is due to be tried before the Paris Criminal Court in October for sexual assaults committed on two women during the filming of Jean Becker’s film, “Les volets verts”, in 2021.
A former film assistant had also filed a complaint in Paris in January, denouncing sexual assaults during the filming of the film “The Magician and the Siamese” by Jean-Pierre Mocky in 2014. The public prosecutor closed this procedure at the end of April without prosecution, due to the statute of limitations.
A complaint filed by actress Hélène Darras for sexual assault during filming in 2007 was dismissed for the same reason.
