French filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, accused by actresses including Judith Godrèche of sexual violence, were placed in police custody at the Minor Protection Brigade on Monday, sources close to the case said.
The two men, who contest these accusations, arrived around 9:30 a.m. at the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police (DRPJ) in Paris accompanied by their lawyers.
Benoît Jacquot “will finally be able to speak before the courts”, reacted his counsel, who denounced a “questionable” police custody. “A free hearing should have been decided,” she added. For Jacques Doillon’s lawyer, “none of the legal criteria can justify this measure” of police custody “36 years” after the facts denounced by Judith Godrèche.
Her client “should have been heard in a free hearing given the age of the facts, their statute of limitations acquired for more than two decades, and the inevitable dismissal without further action which will close this investigation”, she added. The two lawyers denounced the “attacks on the presumption of innocence” of their clients and the media coverage of these measures.
Potential confrontations
According to sources close to the case, these police custody periods could lead to confrontations between the directors and some of their accusers, including Judith Godrèche. In early February, the 52-year-old actress sparked a new storm in the French #MeToo movement by successively accusing Benoît Jacquot of rape and then Jacques Doillon of sexual assault, and filing a complaint.
The investigation by the Paris public prosecutor’s office concerns the offenses of rape of a minor under 15 years of age by a person in authority, rape, violence by a partner, and sexual assault of a minor over 15 years of age by a person in authority. Benoît Jacquot and Judith Godrèche, born in March 1972, began their relationship in the spring of 1986. They lived openly together, even buying an apartment in Paris, until their separation in 1992.
Judith Godrèche spoke of a relationship of “control” and “perversion”. Two other actresses filed a complaint against Benoît Jacquot: Julia Roy for sexual assault and Isild le Besco, at the end of May, for rape of a minor over 15 years old and rapes, which were allegedly committed between 1998 and 2007.
>> Read again: Investigation opened after Judith Godrèche’s rape complaint against director Benoît Jacquot
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