07:57: Gérard Depardieu is extremely affected and, unfortunately, his doctors forbid him from attending the hearing,” explains his lawyer Jérémie Assous on franceinfo. The actor will “request a postponement” of the trial “to a later date”, “so that he can be present”. It will be up to the court to accept or not this referral request.
07:32: First trial today at 1:30 p.m. for Gérard Depardieu for sexual assault, while the actor is indicted for rape and targeted by numerous complaints for sexual violence. In this first trial: he is accused of sexual assault on two women during filming in 2021. “I confirm to you that Gérard Depardieu intends to appear before the court,” his lawyer, Me Jérémy Assous, responded to AFP.
One of the two women, a film decorator, filed a complaint in February 2024 for sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist outrages during the filming of the film Les Volets Verts by Jean Becker in 2021, which led to the opening of an investigation .
She denounced facts dating back to September 2021 which allegedly took place in a private hotel in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. “I expect justice to be the same for everyone and that Mr. Depardieu does not benefit from preferential treatment because he is an artist,” his lawyer, Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, explains to AFP.
“The witnesses and the evidence that he will produce will demonstrate that he is only the target of false accusations,” promises Mr. Assous, for whom “the goal pursued has just been revealed through the requests of ‘compensation: enrich yourself by 30,000 euros’.
According to the account given by this 55-year-old complainant to Mediapart, Gérard Depardieu suddenly shouted during a conversation that he wanted a “fan” because he could “not even get hard” in this heat, then he assured being able to “make women come without touching them”.
An hour later, he allegedly “grabbed her brutally” as she left the set, she added. Gérard Depardieu would then have “blocked it by closing his legs on [elle] like a crab”, then would have “kneaded his waist, his stomach, going up to [ses] breasts,” she assures.
He also allegedly made “obscene remarks” to her such as “Come touch my big parasol, I’m going to shove it in your pussy”. The actor’s bodyguards then “took him away”, she recalled. “He was screaming and laughing to himself. He said to me: “We’ll see each other again, my darling!”
“My client is waiting for justice to establish that Gérard Depardieu is a serial sexual attacker,” Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt also told AFP.
The actor will also be judged for sexual violence denounced in a complaint by another woman, an assistant director on the same film.
