Fat French film star Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty of sexual offence on a film set, at a trial in Paris and given a suspended sentence of 18 months jail.The 76-year-old actor was alleged to be a groper by the two women for groping them while they worked on a film in 2021. Depardieu had denied the charges against him and his lawyer has announced that he was going to appeal.In this case, the court in Paris established that amoung the two women, a Set designer who is named Amélie had given consistent evidence whereas the actor has changed her testimonies in times. She told the reporters later that she was “very moved” and happy about the verdict, which for her was “a victory, a major step forward”.Depardieu has also been found guilty of assaulting an assistant director and he had referred to her as Sarah.The actor was not present in the court when the verdict was read because he was busy on the set of a film in the Azores.Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, who represented the two women, hoped that the verdict had put an end to the impunity of an artist in the film industry.” It’s a win for two women on a film set, but it’s a win for all the women behind this case and I’m thinking of all of Depardieu’s other victims,” she told reporters.The lawyer also said that the case had ended hours before the Cannes film festival was about to begin.
Delivering the suspended jail term the judge put the counte in a list of sex offenders and required him to pay €1,000 (£840) to each of the women, Amélie and Sarah, for “secondary victimisation”, new part covering the additional pain for the women from the process of the trial.
The lawyer of Depardieu, Jérémie Assous had alleged of women being liars during their evidence.
The alleged attacks happened in September 2021 during the filming of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters), a movie about an old actor learning to live with the waning of his powers.
This was a first sexual assault trial hearing for Depardieu. Several other women have reported similar allegations in the media, and there may be an alleged case of rape that can get to trial.
Immediately after the trial, he was invited to go with his close friend and actor Fanny Ardant to the Azores for a film-shoot.
At the end of the trial in Paris at the end of March, prosecutor Laurent Guy said: It is in fact possible for one to be a good actor and a very good father yet commit a crime.
You are not in this country to judge the French cinema. You are here to judge Gérard Depardieu as if he was another citizen.Claude Vincent, an attorney of one of the two female plaintiffs, said that Depardieu was a “misogynist” and a “case-study in sexism”.Depardieu's lawyer had asked for an acquittal and labeled the plaintiffs' team a group of militants than lawyers.They cannot stand the fact that there should be a defence. They believe that any defence is an additional attack,’’ he told the court.
The first plaintiff, Amélie, the set decorator, said on the stand that she had a minor altercation with Depardieu after which, he caught her between his legs and held her by the hips.
The second woman - the film’s assistant director Sarah – said that the actor had touched her buttocks and breasts through the clothes three times.Depardieu denied charges, claiming that he could have touched the women accidentally, or in an attempt to maintain his balance.
At the end of hearings, Depardieu said: My name has been slandered through fibs and insults.
A trial may be a particularly impressive experience for an actor. Watching all this hatful, the police, the press. It is like being in a science fiction film but it is not science fiction. It's life."
He thanked the prosecution and defence teams for shedding light to him regarding the working of courts. “These lessons could serve as an inspiration for me if I ever get to play a lawyer one day ”, he spoke.Depardieu said that he had not been acting for the last 3 years, as the allegations for his sexual misconducts started to spread.
However, earlier this month it was reported that he had started to work in the Azores on a film by his friend, the actress Fanny Ardant. According to certain reports in the media, Depardieu is playing a character of a magician on a mysterious island.Ardant appeared with Depardieu in Les Volets Verts and he testified on his defence in the trial.
“Genius – in whatever form it may assume – bears with it a touch (or speck) of the extravagant, the untamed and the dangerous”. ” (Depardieu) is the monster and the saint,” she said.Another veteran French actress was in support of Depardieu’s side on Monday. In a rare interview with the French television, Brigitte Bardot, 90, said that she despised the fact that “talented people who touch the buttocks of a girl are consigned to the deepest dungeon”.
“Feminism isn’t my thing,”Bardot said. "Personally, I like men."
Fat French film star Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty of sexual offence on a film set, at a trial in Paris and given a suspended sentence of 18 months jail.The 76-year-old actor was alleged to be a groper by the two women for groping them while they worked on a film in 2021. Depardieu had denied the charges against him and his lawyer has announced that he was going to appeal.In this case, the court in Paris established that amoung the two women, a Set designer who is named Amélie had given consistent evidence whereas the actor has changed her testimonies in times. She told the reporters later that she was “very moved” and happy about the verdict, which for her was “a victory, a major step forward”.Depardieu has also been found guilty of assaulting an assistant director and he had referred to her as Sarah.The actor was not present in the court when the verdict was read because he was busy on the set of a film in the Azores.Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, who represented the two women, hoped that the verdict had put an end to the impunity of an artist in the film industry.” It’s a win for two women on a film set, but it’s a win for all the women behind this case and I’m thinking of all of Depardieu’s other victims,” she told reporters.The lawyer also said that the case had ended hours before the Cannes film festival was about to begin.
