Christophe Ruggia tried in December for sexual assault on Adèle Haenel – Libération

2024-08-03 14:14:41

Sexual violencedossier

The director will be sentenced on December 9 and 10 by the Paris criminal court. Two stigmatizing circumstances, the smallness of the actor at the time of the facts and the commanding position of the filmmaker, are retained.

In 2019, Adèle Haenel’s words on the sexual violence she suffered were the beginnings of MeToo in French cinema. The group that started, revived this year by Judith Godrèche, is turning to the legal case. Director Christophe Ruggia will be tried on February 9 and 10 at the Paris Criminal Court for sexual assault on the actress. Two stigmatizing circumstances are pending: the victim’s age – Adèle Haenel is aged 12 to 14 – and the status of the film, according to the written consent order signed on Tuesday July 30. The 59-year-old director has faced accusations since the beginning of the proceedings; His lawyers declined to comment.

The facts which will arise during the trial span from September 2001 to February 2004. The period from January to the end of August 2001 is excluded from the proceedings. The investigating judge also ordered to drop the charges against him for the homosexuality that the actor said during the festival, in Japan in June 2002 and in Morocco in September 2002.

“Adèle Haenel denied in detail, often and in a precise way the many incidents of touching of a sexual nature on her vagina and her chest while providing information on the opening of the flowers, their systematic nature during the visits to the house of Christophe Ruggia, schedule in of the premises, their respective conditions and working conditions”, noted the investigating judge in his jurisdiction. He also noticed “Your surprise” in time of truth, “psychological antidotes” attacks and his dependencies to many relations “Over the years».

“mental restraint”

It is believed that the film actor, the first to have cast the actor in the film “Esu” (2002), ordered “Advanced Mental Restraint” to the river At the time of events, he presented a “serious injury”, such as psychological expertise. «Lack of permission»TELL “measurement”is shown by the age of Adèle Haenel is then, as “The significant age difference between the two protagonists”. At that time, aged 36 to 39, Christophe Ruggia received him every Saturday afternoon at his home for three years.

The judge’s findings are consistent with what the actor said five years ago, in an investigation and interview. by Mediapart. He described “leadership role” during the preparation and shooting of the film, then a “perpetual rape”of the “repeated touch” we had “forced kisses on the sky”at home and in many international festivals.

He initially refused to take legal action, but finally filed an indictment a few days after the opening of a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office on November 6, 2019. Christophe Ruggia was charged on January 16, 2020, For “Sexual assault on a minor under the age of 15 by a person who has authority over the victim”. He is currently under judicial supervision.

Since then, many figures in French cinema have been caught in accusations of sexual violence. So Gérard Depardieu has been charged since 2020 for rape and sexual assault on the actress Charlotte Arnould. He will be tried in October for sexual violence against two women while filming, in 2021, the film Jean Becker “Green Locks”.

Benoît Jacquot was accused in early July for the rape of the actresses Julia Roy in 2013 and Isild le Besco between 1998 and 2000. Being under judicial supervision, he has been prohibited from working as a director and from attending public events that link to movies. At the beginning of the year, Judith Godrèche was publicly accused of rape, as was Jacques Doillon – but the contradictory facts seem to have been imposed. The treatment of the second, also accused of rape, mental violence, assault and battery by Joe Rohanne, was lifted for medical reasons.