Dominique Boutonnat, the pinnacle of France’s highly effective Nationwide Centre for Cinema and the Shifting Picture (CNC), was on Friday given a three-year jail sentence, together with two years suspended, after being convicted of sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.
In a press release launched instantly after the ruling, Boutonnat introduced he would step down as head of the CNC, a authorities company whose position contains overseeing measures to curb sexual violence within the trade.
He’ll be capable of serve his one-year jail time period at residence sporting an digital bracelet, stated the Nanterre felony court docket. Boutonnat, 54, was additionally banned from having any contact with the sufferer for 3 years.
In its verdict, the court docket dominated that the “plaintiff’s model was extra credible” than that of Boutonnat who, based on the court docket, all the time exercised “an actual affect” over his godson.
Within the assertion launched by the CNC, Boutonnat “reaffirmed his innocence” and stated he would attraction.
The younger man accused Boutonnat of attempting to masturbate him throughout a vacation in Greece in 2020 when he was 19. In court docket, the younger man has described Boutonnat as “greater than a godfather”.
Boutonnat denies any sexual assault has taken place. He stated in court docket that it was his godson who had initiated the state of affairs and kissed him on the mouth. “I really feel dangerous about leaving an ambiguous state of affairs, however to say there was a sexual assault is fake,” he advised the court docket.
The manager was positioned beneath investigation in February 2021 however nonetheless reappointed by the federal government as head of the CNC in July 2022.
“This case is an ideal demonstration of what sexual assault is,” stated Caroline Toby, the sufferer’s lawyer, including that “the abuse of authority” had been recognised in court docket. On 14 June, the general public prosecutor had requested a three-year suspended jail sentence for Boutonnat.
The trial got here as French cinema reels from a renewed MeToo reckoning that has seen a number of large names, together with appearing legend Gérard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse. Depardieu denies wrongdoing.
Supply hyperlink
