At the trial of Christophe Ruggia, five years in prison, including two years, required against the director, accused of sexual assault on Adèle Haenel

A five-year prison sentence, including two years, was requested on Tuesday, December 10, against director Christophe Ruggia, tried in Paris for sexual assault on actress Adèle Haenel when she was between 12 and 14 years old.

The prosecutor requested that the firm part of this sentence be placed directly under an electronic bracelet, which means that Christophe Ruggia would not go to prison if the court follows the prosecution. She also required registration in the register of perpetrators of sexual offenses, a ban on contact with the victim and an obligation to compensate her. The defense pleaded for acquittal, and the court will deliver its decision on February 3.

Tuesday, during the hearing and while the director maintained on the stand that he had tried to protect her during her debut in the cinema, the actress suddenly stood up, slapping her hands flat on the table in front of her, before shout : “But, shut up!” ». She then left the room.

Adèle Haenel, 35, who has since withdrawn from cinema, had just made a short statement on the stand. “Who was there around this child to tell her: 'It's not your fault. It's manipulation. Is this violence? »asked the actress, in a black suit. “Everyone asks me to cry over the fate of Mr. Ruggia, but who cared about the child? Attacking children like that doesn't happen. It has consequences. No one helped this child”she added, her voice trembling.

A “conscience of a man, of an adult to act differently”

The court then called Christophe Ruggia, asking him to react. “I was aware, from the start, of the complexity of this film… »began the director, about his feature film The Devilsin which Adèle Haenel played the main role, in 2001, when she was 12 years old. “We agree that Adèle Haenel does not blame you for the conditions of the filming, but for the aftermath”the president interrupted.

The 59-year-old director assured that he had tried to protect her from the fallout from his film, in which she had performed sex scenes, just before the start of the attacks denounced.

“I told him to take an assumed name…”he said, before being interrupted by the cry of Adèle Haenel. His departure from the courtroom resonated like an echo of that of the Caesars ceremony, in 2020, after the nomination of Roman Polanski. After half an hour of absence, the actress returned to the courtroom, sitting down, face closed, at the end of the civil parties' bench.

The day before, Christophe Ruggia had accused her of “pure lie”speaking of a “#MeToo French” who would be ” fall “ on him, and assuring that the actress had wanted to “avenge” because he didn't play it again afterwards The Devils. A “absurd defense”swept away prosecutor Camille Ploch. “He made the choice to sexually assault. He had all his conscience as a man, as an adult, to act differently”supports the prosecutor regarding the defendant, who was, at the time, between 36 and 39 years old.

“This hearing must remind us of the forbidden, who was the adult, who was the child. She must put the world right”insisted the magistrate, who did not “no doubt” on the reality of the attacks, described in a manner «constant» by Adèle Haenel, “from 2006” in private. “He reproached me for the love he had for me”said the actress. “How heavy it must be to carry when you are 12 years old…”comments the prosecutor.

A “fiction” which “permeates reality”, according to the defense

In the packed room, the prosecutor spoke of the multiple testimonies of the « malaise » of adults, the writings of“rejected lover” by Christophe Ruggia. And this “incapacity” from the director “to detail what happened for hours between an adult man and this preteen, twenty-four years his junior”.

Durant “120 Saturdays” between 2001 and 2004, “his hands under the t-shirt, in the panties of a little girl”had counted Yann Le Bras, one of Adèle Haenel's lawyers. But, according to Mr. Ruggia, completes Anouck Michelin, the actress's other piece of advice, “it’s the child who is in all the wrongs, who is too sensual, too sassy, ​​too dangerous”.

The actress's lawyers requested 30,000 euros in compensation for moral damage and 31,000 euros to cover her psychological follow-up.

The accusations of Adèle Haenel – in Mediapart in 2019 – “were not spontaneous”accuses in defense M^e Orly Rezlan, but those of a “whistleblower of a #MeToo in cinema” French. In everyone's eyes, Christophe Ruggia is already “guilty, guilty, guilty”, thunders his second lawyer, Fanny Colin, who fears that the court will not be held “to do justice with a gun to your head”.

Since the director is a “big liar and we ask him to shut his mouth”M^e Colin only wants to talk about « dossier ». To question “the convictions asserted”the « fiction » Who “permeates reality”she said, and above all “the memory” Who “resurfaces” but who is not “sufficient to enter into the process of conviction”.

End of trial. Adèle Haenel leaves the courtroom without a word, thanking with a gesture the women who came to applaud her.