New important step in the investigations into sexual assault targeting Gérard Depardieu: the actor, already indicted for rape, was heard in police custody all day Monday on facts denounced by at least two women. He will be tried in October.
“At the end of his police custody at the 3rd judicial police district, Gérard Depardieu was given a summons to appear before the criminal court (…) for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021 to the prejudice of two victims, on the set of the film ‘The Green Shutters'”, specified the prosecution.
The police custody ended shortly before 6:30 p.m., one of his lawyers, Christian Saint-Palais, who was leaving the police station, told the press.
“When a person is implicated, inevitably, there is a moment when they have to explain themselves. And so today was one of those days where we have to explain the accusations made against you and that you contest”, added Me Saint-Palais, deploring the leaks to the press.
When requested, the prosecution did not respond to AFP to confirm this information and specify the legal consequences.
Gérard Depardieu, targeted by complaints from at least two women, was summoned Monday morning to be interviewed in the premises of the 3rd district of the Parisian judicial police (3rd DPJ), indicated
“Green shutters”
A decorator, who worked on the team of the film “Les Volets Verts” directed by Jean Becker, accuses him of having sexually assaulted her in 2021.
When asked, his lawyer, Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, did not wish to comment.
His client filed a complaint in February 2024 for sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults. The facts date back to September 2021 and allegedly took place in a private hotel in Paris.
According to his account to Mediapart, the actor would have made numerous gravelly remarks during filming, then later would have “grabbed her brutally” and would have “kneaded her waist, her stomach, going up to her breasts” .
He also made “obscene remarks” to her such as “come touch my big parasol, I’m going to shove it in your pussy”, she told the news site.
According to Mediapart, another woman, an assistant director on the same shoot, accused the actor of sexual violence and filed a complaint.
During this filming, “from morning to evening, we had the right to our salacious comments”, testified the actress Anouk Grinberg, in an interview with AFP. “When film producers hire Depardieu on a film, they know that they are hiring an aggressor,” she accused.
Another complaint is brought by a former film assistant who accuses Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault in 2014.
According to Le Courrier de l’Ouest, this woman, aged 24 at the time of the events and who also wishes to remain anonymous, filed a complaint on January 9, denouncing “obscene comments” made by Gérard Depardieu during meetings in his private mansion in Paris.
“His hands everywhere”
She also accuses him of having sexually assaulted her and of having made sexual propositions to her during the filming in Maine-et-Loire of the film “The Magician and the Siamese” by Jean-Pierre Mocky in March 2014.
The complainant spoke to the regional newspaper about “her hands all over (her) body” and the actor’s “indecent words” on the set.
The French cinema giant has also been indicted since 2020 for rape and sexual assault on a young actress, Charlotte Arnould.
The actress Hélène Darras had also filed a complaint against him for sexual assault during filming in 2007, but it was closed by the Paris prosecutor’s office for prescription.
In Spain, Mr. Depardieu, who played “Cyrano de Bergerac”, is also the target of a complaint from the journalist and writer Ruth Baza, who accuses him of having raped her in 1995.
The actor denies
In total, around twenty women testified in the press or in court.
“Never, ever have I abused a woman,” said the 75-year-old actor in an open letter published in October 2023 in Le Figaro, referring to Charlotte Arnould’s accusations.
These investigations come at a time when the world of cinema is experiencing an explosion, shaken by a succession of accusations of sexual violence, from actresses but also from actors.
After Gérard Depardieu, filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon are the target of an investigation for rape of a minor, after a complaint filed by actress Judith Godrèche.
The latter has become one of the leading figures in the fight against sexual violence in the 7th art in France, following in the wake of actresses Adèle Haenel and Charlotte Arnould.