The president of the National Cinema Center (CNC), Dominique Boutonnat, was sentenced on Friday June 28 by the Nanterre criminal court to three years in prison, including one year closed for having sexually assaulted his godson in August 2020, a case for which associations requested, in vain, his departure.
The court found that the acts described at the hearing on June 14 were “particularly far in the context of a sexual assault”Dominique Boutonnat will have to serve his one-year prison sentence at home with an electronic bracelet, he said.
Following this conviction, Dominique Boutonnat will leave the presidency of the CNC, the body announced in a press release.
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“More than a godfather”
At the hearing on June 14, the prosecution requested a three-year suspended prison sentence against Mr. Boutonnat, 54 years old. “We came very close to something that would have been criminal.”the prosecutor estimated.
The powerful boss of the CNC, erected by some as a symbol of the impunity from which certain big names of the 7 have long benefitede art, was accused by his godson, 19 years old at the time of the facts, of having forcibly kissed him and sexually assaulted him during a stay in Greece in August 2020. In court, the young man had described Dominique Boutonnat, with whom he is not related, as “more than a godfather”coming three to four times a week to his parents’ home.
According to him, during a stay at his godfather’s country house in Greece, the latter tried to masturbate him after they had bathed naked in a swimming pool. The young man said he then masturbated him to make him stop touching him.
At the helm, the president of the CNC denied any sexual assault, admitting to having taken a photo of the young man naked leaving the swimming pool while ensuring that he was aiming at the landscape. He also allowed kisses, but according to him they were consented to and initiated by his godson. And he admitted to having “merde” afterwards.
Mr Boutonnat had been indicted for attempted rape, but the prosecution dismissed this charge in favour of sexual assault only. Despite his indictment in February 2021, he was reappointed by the executive as head of the CNC in July 2022.
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The CGT-spectacle had called for his resignation and the 50/50 collective, which campaigns for equality, parity and diversity in the film and audiovisual industry, had deplored his renewal. The actress Judith Godrèche, committed to the protection of children and against sexual violence, had for her part asked the Senate for the withdrawal of the boss of the CNC.
