Nicolas Bedos risks a year in prison

Guy Bedos’ son is currently on trial in Paris for sexual assault and harassment. He faces a one-year suspended prison sentence.

Tried for sexual assault and harassment of three women between 2018 and 2023, French actor and director Nicolas Bedos defended himself as a “sexual aggressor” on Thursday at the Paris court. The public prosecutor requested a one-year suspended prison sentence against him.

“Can we be mistaken? No, there is no ambiguity”declared the prosecutor in his indictment, asking for one year in prison with a probationary suspension of two years.

In his defense, the actor and director repeated on numerous occasions that he had no memory of the facts with which he is accused but vigorously denied having engaged in inappropriate behavior.

“I wish it didn’t exist”

In the courtroom, in the front row, the young woman who filed a complaint against him burst into tears upon hearing these words. “I couldn’t say how long it lasted. I saw who this man was, his eyes scared me,” she explained, curling up in her gray hoodie:

The alleged facts date back to the night of June 1 to 2, 2023, during an evening at a nightclub. She accuses the director of having walked towards her, head down before extending his right hand to her penis, over her jeans.

At the bar, Guy Bedos’ son maintained that he “remembered nothing” about this evening where he celebrated his partner’s pregnancy.

“I’m not disputing what she said, but it’s her interpretation of a gesture,” he continued, arguing that he could never have put his hand “on the vagina of a woman even over jeans.

“Fear”

The defendant, aged 45, admitted to having a problem with alcohol but declared that he was undergoing therapy and drinking less today, while turning towards his companion, Pauline Desmonts, seated in the front row and towards his sister and his mother also present.

The trial, which should have taken place in February, was adjourned to allow the statements of two other women to be examined. In the front row, the two other young women who denounced the director’s behavior listened to this testimony.

One of them, a waitress in a Parisian bar, told investigators 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.

The other alleged act, qualified as sexual harassment, dates back to June 2018. The director is suspected of having touched the stomach of a young woman and of having asked her to kiss him before following her as she went to to the toilet.

Various figures in French cinema have been caught up in accusations of sexual violence for several months. (ats/afp)

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