Hélène Darras’ complaint dismissed, the facts deemed time-barred – Libération

2024-01-22 16:10:31

Sexual violence file The complaint of the actress Hélène Darras, who accused Gérard Depardieu of having put a “very strong” hand on her buttocks in 2007 during the filming of a film, was closed without further action. The facts were deemed time-barred.

The facts were deemed time-barred. The complaint for sexual assault by actress Hélène Darras against Gérard Depardieu was dismissed, revealed this Monday, January 22, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirming information from BFMTV et RTL. The complainant, aged 26 and an extra at the time of the alleged facts, accused the actor of having put a hand on her buttocks “well pressed” on the set of the film Disco, in 2007. She was informed of this decision on the 29 December.

In her testimony to Complément d’investigation in March 2022, Hélène Darras described an “unmanageable” Depardieu at the time of filming. “He looks at me like I’m a piece of meat. I have an ultra-tight dress, he pulls me closer to him by the waist, then he runs his hand over my hips, over my buttocks…”. The one who “smelled of alcohol” asked her if she wanted to “get in [sa] lodge”. “I tell him no, but that doesn’t change the fact that between takes, he’s going to continue to grope me. I am petrified,” continued the actress. “I’m an extra, I haven’t even finished my theater school yet, and I want to be an actress. I don’t want to be blacklisted at 26.”

In this program featuring rushes from a documentary, we also heard the actor make comments of a sexual nature aimed at an 11-year-old girl horseback riding, during a trip to North Korea in 2018 in the company of Yann Moix . Another actress, Charlotte Arnould, also accused him of rape. Facts which allegedly took place at the end of August 2018 and for which he has been indicted since December 2020. Charlotte Arnould’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, recently wrote to the Paris prosecutor’s office to ask them to analyze the Complément report investigation, according to the public prosecutor confirming other information from BFMTV. The lawyer believes that the comments made by Gérard Depardieu in North Korea in front of the camera are likely to be criminal, which the prosecution is currently analyzing.

13 women accuse him

Seven months after the program broadcast by France Télévision, Hélène Darras – who until now mainly wanted to provide her testimony to “support that of Charlotte Arnould” according to Mediapart – finally decided to file a complaint on September 10. That is 16 years after the filming of Disco. The statute of limitations is six years for sexual assault, fifteen years for rape, twenty for aggravated rape. The actress had nevertheless “wanted to respond to the defense which minimizes our denunciations by saying that they are ‘only’ testimonies”. “It took me a year to move from testimony to complaint,” she also confided. “Walking through the door of the police station, telling a police officer that your private parts were touched, it’s not easy, it takes time to think about it,” she added.

In all, in April 2023, thirteen women accused the actor of sexual violence. They testified to Mediapart, mentioning obscene, insistent comments, hands slipped into panties, on buttocks or chests. The person concerned, for his part, denied these accusations. In an open letter published on the Figaro website at the beginning of October, he defended himself: “Never, ever have I abused a woman. Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach.”