PARIS (AP) — French movie star Gérard Depardieu has been ordered to face trial earlier than a legal courtroom in Paris over allegations of rape and sexual assault in opposition to actor Charlotte Arnould.
“I feel relieved,” Arnould, 29, wrote on Instagram on Tuesday, asserting that she had acquired the investigating choose’s indictment order. “The order restores a form of judicial truth. I think I’m having trouble realizing how huge this is.”
Arnould has mentioned that the alleged crimes passed off at Depardieu’s Paris dwelling on Aug. 7 and Aug. 13, 2018. She was 22 and he was 69 on the time. He has denied wrongdoing.
“The acts of rape and sexual assault have been acknowledged,” Arnould mentioned. “Now, we await the next steps.”
No date for the trial has been set but, and there was no official remark from the courtroom.
Arnould’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, mentioned in a press release that she and Arnould had been “relieved and confident,” describing the decision as a “moment of judicial truth” within the case, pending trial.
Prosecutors submitted a request final 12 months for the case to proceed to trial.
The 76-year-old Depardieu, one of the distinguished figures in French cinema for many years, has confronted a collection of accusations of wrongdoing in opposition to girls in recent times.
He was convicted earlier this 12 months of sexually assaulting two girls on a movie set and acquired an 18-month suspended jail sentence. The case was broadly seen as a post-#MeToo take a look at for the nation’s movie trade. Arnould attended that trial.
In that case, Depardieu was convicted of groping a 54-year-old lady chargeable for adorning the set and a 34-year-old assistant throughout the filming of “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”) in 2021. The courtroom ordered his identify to be listed within the nationwide intercourse offender database.
The actor has been accused publicly or in formal complaints of misconduct by greater than 20 girls in all, however thus far solely the sexual assault case has proceeded to courtroom. Different instances had been dropped due to a scarcity of proof or as a result of the statute of limitations expired.
For greater than a half-century, Depardieu stood as a towering determine in French cinema, a titan recognized for his commanding bodily presence, intuition, sensibility and noteworthy versatility. A bon vivant who overcame a speech obstacle and a turbulent youth, Depardieu rose to prominence within the Seventies and have become certainly one of France’s most prolific and acclaimed actors, portraying an enormous array of characters, from risky outsiders to deeply introspective figures. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1991 for his efficiency because the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac.
Lately, his habits towards girls has come below renewed scrutiny, together with after a documentary confirmed him repeatedly making obscene remarks and gestures throughout a 2018 journey to North Korea.
