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.
Mr. 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 six-month sentence to which he was sentenced be served at home, under electronic surveillance. He was also sentenced to six months in prison with a two-year probationary suspension.
The judges 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).
On all of these provisions, the court ordered provisional execution, that is to say applicable immediately.
During the hearing, the prosecution requested a one-year suspended prison sentence and an obligation of care against the filmmaker, aged 45.
“I am both stunned and shocked by the deliberations that I have just heard,” reacted Nicolas Bedos’ 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 six months.”
“There is no question to ask: we will immediately appeal against this unfair judgment on which I call on everyone to reflect,” also announced Mr. Minkowski.
But the court having ordered the provisional execution of the sentence, the appeal filed by Nicolas Bedos should not prevent his placement under an electronic bracelet.
For Me Tewfik Bouzenoune, lawyer for one of the two victims, the decision of the criminal court has “educational value”.
“I do not have to be satisfied with a prison sentence. On the other hand, I am satisfied with a decision which, in principle, advances the question of the fight against sexist and sexual violence,” he said. -he added.
– State of intoxication –
During the hearing, Nicolas Bedos denied being “a sexual aggressor” but admitted to alcohol problems and “heavy friendliness” when drunk.
“I don’t remember anything, it’s a blackout,” the defendant declared on numerous occasions, while vigorously denying having engaged in inappropriate behavior.
He was found guilty of sexual assault committed by a person in a state of obvious intoxication for events which occurred in 2023: a woman accused the director of having walked towards her, head down before extending his right hand to the level of his penis, over his jeans, on 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 woman, 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.
According to the court, “Nicolas Bedos could not have been unaware that he was committing an act of a sexual nature against the will” of the two women, recognized as victims.
“The defendant’s blood alcohol level cannot mitigate his action and constitutes an aggravating circumstance perfectly characterized in this case, which he does not dispute,” considered the court.
The director was also suspected of having touched the stomach of a young woman and asking her to kiss him before following her as she went to the toilet in 2018.
But the court acquitted him for these last facts which had been qualified as sexual harassment, “with the benefit of the doubt”.
A provocative artist and comedian, Nicolas Bedos is the author of four films, three of which were presented at the Cannes Film Festival.
He has filmed the elite of French cinema, from Jean Dujardin (“OSS 117: Red Alert in Black Africa”) to Isabelle Adjani (“Mascarade”), including Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet and Fanny Ardant.
Various figures in French cinema have been caught up in accusations of sexual violence for several months.
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