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, while one of the civil parties underlined the difficulty in filing a complaint.
• Also read: Request for criminal trial against Gérard Depardieu
• Also read: MeToo in France: the noose tightens around two filmmakers suspected of rape
“I will never be a sexual aggressor, I do not impose,” affirmed the 45-year-old defendant, son of comedian Guy Bedos, and director of several films including Jean Dujardin (“OSS117: Red Alert in Black Africa). “).
“We can talk about heaviness, we can talk about flirting (…), but there is no sexual intention,” he added.
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, cowering in her gray hoodie. “It costs so much to file a complaint, I can’t sleep anymore… I would have preferred that it didn’t exist,” continued the young woman, “but it’s serious.”
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.
On the stand, Nicolas Bedos maintained that he “remembered nothing” about this evening where he celebrated his partner’s pregnancy. “I sincerely wish I could remember what happened.” “Our lives have turned upside down, my life has turned upside down,” he moaned.
“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.”
The defendant admitted to having a problem with alcohol, but he 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.
