Trial: One year suspended prison sentence required against Nicolas Bedos

A one-year suspended prison sentence as well as an obligation of care were requested Thursday evening against the actor and director Nicolas Bedos, accused of sexual assault and harassment of three women between 2018 and 2023.

“I don’t remember. It’s a blackout…”: throughout his trial before the Paris criminal court, Nicolas Bedos kept repeating that he had kept no memory of the attacks of which several women accused him, admitting to having been in an advanced state of intoxication each time.

However, the director denied being a “sexual aggressor”, affirming that even under the influence of alcohol he could not have behaved inappropriately: “nothing in me, in my life, in what I am, in what I think, does not corroborate such gestures.” “I am not in a sexual approach when I am in an advanced state of intoxication,” affirmed the 45-year-old defendant. “We can talk about heaviness, we can talk about flirting (…) but there is no sexual intention.”

“He has a problem with alcohol”

At these words, the young woman who filed a complaint against him burst into tears. She accuses the director of having walked towards her, head down before extending his right hand to her genitals, over her jeans, on the night of June 1 to 2, 2023, during an evening at a club. night.

“I’m not disputing what she said, but it’s her interpretation of a gesture,” he continued, arguing that he could never have put his hand “on the vagina of a woman, even over jeans. The defendant admitted to having a problem with alcohol but he declared that he was undergoing therapy and drinking less today, while turning towards his companion, Pauline Desmonts, seated in the front row and towards his sister and his mother also present.

“Yes, he has a problem with alcohol but it is not because he was drunk that we can accuse him of anything!” declared Nicolas Bedos’ lawyer in her pleading. “It is an alcoholism which has terrible consequences for him and for others, but it is an illness linked to depression,” continued Me Julia Minkowski.

“Fear”

Called to the stand earlier in the day to testify, the complainant had difficulty recounting the evening, her voice breaking into sobs when she had to mime the attack. “I couldn’t say how long it lasted. I saw who this man was, his eyes scared me,” she explained, cowering in her gray hoodie.

“It costs so much to file a complaint, I can’t sleep anymore… I would have preferred that it didn’t exist,” continued the young woman, “but it’s serious.” In the front row, the two other young women who denounced the director’s behavior listened to this testimony.

One of them, a waitress in a Parisian bar, told investigators that Nicolas Bedos had grabbed her by the waist and kissed her on the neck on the night of May 11 to 12, 2023, while the latter was drunk.

The other alleged act, qualified as sexual harassment, dates back to June 2018. The director is suspected of having touched the stomach of a young woman and of having asked her to kiss him before following her as she went to to the toilet.

“It’s not sexual assault”

Referring to these facts, the defense lawyer asked the court not to recognize the assault and harassment. “A kiss on the neck is unpleasant but it is not sexual assault,” said Mr. Minkowski.

Neither of these two women filed a complaint but both became civil parties during the day.

A provocative artist, Nicolas Bedos has turned the cream of French cinema, from Jean Dujardin (“OSS117: Red Alert in Black Africa”) to Isabelle Adjani (“Mascarade”), including Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet and Fanny Ardant. Various figures in French cinema have been caught up in accusations of sexual violence for several months.

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