Gérard Depardieu has been discovered responsible of sexually assaulting two girls throughout a movie shoot in 2021.
Depardieu, France’s greatest movie star, who has made greater than 200 movies and TV collection, is the highest-profile determine within the French movie business to be convicted of sexual assault for the reason that #MeToo motion.
The 76-year-old, who was not in court docket for the decision, was convicted of sexually assaulting a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director in the course of the taking pictures of the characteristic movie Les Volets Verts (The Inexperienced Shutters) in Paris in September 2021.
The court docket heard that Depardieu trapped the set decorator, recognized solely as Amélie, between his legs on the movie set and grabbed her buttocks, pubis and chest. She stated he trapped her with power, used obscene language and needed to be pulled off her.
Depardieu focused Amélie on set when she was making telephone calls to trace down parasols for the movie. He allegedly stated: “Come and contact my huge parasol. I’ll stick it in your pussy.”
Amélie instructed the court docket that he then grabbed her hips, pulled her in the direction of him and trapped her between his thighs with nice power, and grabbed her physique, together with her pubis, waist and chest.
“That’s the place I understood the power he had, he held me very, very laborious,” she stated. “I keep in mind his eyes, I noticed this huge face, pink eyes, very indignant, very agitated. And he was saying: ‘Come contact my huge parasol,’ with a loopy look. I’ve by no means seen something like that.”
She stated: “That concern that I felt – what stands out for me is just not his sexual need however his savagery. It was the truth that he knew I used to be afraid – I noticed his eyes mild up with a form of pleasure in making somebody afraid. I keep in mind that savagery. He actually terrified me, and that amused him.”
Depardieu was additionally convicted of sexually assaulting an assistant director on the identical movie, touching her breasts or buttocks on three separate events. The girl, who was not named within the media, was tasked with accompanying Depardieu from his dressing room on to the set in the course of the filming. She stated the assaults left her “petrified”.
The assistant director instructed the court docket {that a} first sexual assault occurred throughout an evening shoot in Paris, when she discovered herself alone with Depardieu on the finish of a brief highway the place his dressing room was situated as they walked in the direction of an out of doors set.
She stated the second assault occurred at a later date on a set inside a Paris condominium, the place Depardieu blocked her towards a door and put his two arms on her breasts. She instructed the court docket: “I stated no. I used to be scared.”
She stated that on a 3rd event Depardieu put his hand on her buttocks and he or she once more stated: “No.”
The assistant director instructed the court docket that Depardieu “talked about intercourse all day on set, always speaking of ‘pussy’ to everybody”.
Depardieu denied sexual assault. He instructed the trial that the media had used allegations towards him to break his fame. He attacked the #MeToo motion in addition to girls who had held protest placards outdoors a live performance tour he was on on the time of the allegations. “This motion goes to develop into a terror,” he stated.
Depardieu’s trial was seen as a turning level for the French cinema business, which has been accused of being gradual – even resistant – to taking girls’s claims of abuse critically.
A damning parliamentary report by French politicians concluded final month that sexual violence and sexual harassment remained “endemic” in France’s leisure business and that girls and youngsters have been nonetheless being routinely preyed on.
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