The actor and director will appeal his conviction, announced his lawyer, Me Julia Minkowski.
Actor and director Nicolas Bedos was sentenced Tuesday in Paris to one year in prison including six months suspended on probation and to an obligation of care for sexual assaults on two women in 2023, a decision which he will appeal. Nicolas Bedos, who was absent during the deliberations, was however acquitted “with the benefit of the doubt” for acts of sexual harassment in 2018.
The criminal court ordered that the closed part to which he was sentenced be carried out at home, under electronic surveillance. He also imposed an obligation for addictological and psychological care, a ban on contact with the two victims, and requested that the actor be included in the file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (Fijais).
“Unprecedented severity, unfair, totally unacceptable”
“I am both stunned and shocked by the deliberations that I have just heard”reacted his lawyer, Me Julia Minkowski. “This conviction, this severity is completely unprecedented, unjust, totally unacceptable”she added. “We are in a society where for a kiss on the neck or a hand placed on jeans in the middle of a nightclub, we find ourselves condemned to wearing an electronic bracelet for a period of 6 months”.
“There is no question to ask: we will immediately appeal against this unfair judgment on which I call on everyone to reflect”she also announced.
Guilty for acts from 2023
During the hearing, Nicolas Bedos denied being “a sexual assaulter” but had admitted to alcohol problems and “a heavy kindness” in case of drunkenness.
“I don’t remember anything, it’s a blackout”the defendant had declared on numerous occasions, while vigorously denying having engaged in inappropriate behavior.
He was found guilty for acts which occurred in 2023: a complainant accused the director of having walked towards her, head down before extending his right hand to her genitals, over her jeans, in the night of June 1 to 2, 2023.
During the hearing, the very emotional complainant recounted the evening, with sobs in her voice. “I saw who this man was, his eyes scared me”she explained.
Another complainant, a waitress in a Parisian bar, told the court 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.
