#MeToo: Actress Judith Godrèche is sued for defamation

Judith Godrèche announced Tuesday that she had received a summons to be indicted for defamation, procedurally automatic, following a complaint from filmmaker Jacques Doillon, whom she accuses of rape. But it is one of the actress’s Instagram posts which is targeted by this complaint.

“I have not counted the number of complaints for rape and sexual assault filed against Jacques Doillon. I know mine is prescribed. But his defamation complaint is not,” she wrote on the social network Instagram.

As the 52-year-old actress recalled on Instagram, in the event of a complaint for defamation and barring a procedural error, the indictment is automatic, the debates taking place during the hearing on the merits before the criminal court. “But still…” she continued.

The actress publicly accused filmmaker Benoît Jacquot of rape in early February, then Jacques Doillon of sexual assault, triggering a new #MeToo storm in French cinema.

Concerning Jacques Doillon, Judith Godrèche then clarified before the Minor Protection Brigade (BPM) the facts for which she accused him, according to a source close to the case. The actress in fact accuses the filmmaker of rape, because she claims that he “put his fingers in her panties” during tests for a film released in 1989. She was then 15 years old and was with Benoît Jacquot.

Jacques Doillon had filed a defamation complaint, not for these accusations in general, but for an Instagram post from February 21. “Daring to publicly assert, as (Judith Godrèche) did again on February 21, that he would have “slept with children” who were filming in his films is despicable and beyond comprehension,” wrote the lawyer by Jacques Doillon, M^e Marie Dosé, in a press release the next day.

An investigation was launched by the Paris public prosecutor’s office for rape of a minor under 15 years old by a person in authority, rape, violence by a partner and sexual assault on a minor over 15 years old by a person in authority, after the complaint filed by Judith Godrèche.

Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon were questioned at the beginning of July by the Minors Protection Brigade and the first was notably indicted for marital rape and rape of a minor by a person in authority.

Jacques Doillon’s police custody had been lifted “for medical reasons”, the Paris prosecutor’s office indicating that it was considering the “modalities of the follow-up to be given” concerning him. Jacques Doillon’s lawyer, M^e Marie Dosé, had denounced the attack on her client’s presumption of innocence and the framework of his hearing.

Jacques Doillon “should have been heard within the framework of a free hearing in view of the age of the facts, their prescription acquired for more than two decades and the inevitable classification without further action which will close this investigation”, underlined Mr.^e Dose.

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