Paris Prosecutor’s Office Requests Second Trial For Gérard Depardieu Related To Rape Allegations
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office has requested that actor Gérard Depardieu stand trial in a criminal court in relation to rape allegations by actress Charlotte Arnould, French media reported on Thursday.
The investigating judge must now make a decision on whether to endorse the request or not.
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Arnould’s lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt told French news network BFMTV that the trial request marked a major breakthrough in the case for her client.
“For Charlotte Arnould, it’s an enormous step forward in the direction of a trial. She is now impatiently waiting for the end of the investigation,” she said.
Depardieu is already facing trial this October on separate charges of sexual assault against two women on the set of the film The Green Shutters in 2021.
The fresh trial request is related to allegations of two counts of rape lodged in a police complaint by Arnould in August 2018.
RELATED: French President Emmanuel Macron Distances Himself From Gérard Depardieu Amid France’s #MeToo Wave
The actress, whose parents were friends of the actor, alleges Depardieu raped her on August 7 and 13, 2018, when she visited his Paris home seeking advice about her career.
Arnould was the first woman to pursue Depardieu in the courts in relation to sexual assault allegations, but her move came against a backdrop of growing rumors around the actor’s sexually inappropriate treatment of female extras and crew members on film sets.
Her complaint was initially dismissed by the courts following a nine-month investigation for lack of evidence, but she filed a second complaint as a civil party, which resulted in an investigating judge being appointed in 2020, and Depardieu being indicted for rape and sexual assault in 2021.
Previously one of France’s most lauded actors, Depardieu’s public star has fallen over the past 18 months due a series of investigations into his behaviour towards women, including a bombshell documentary produced by France Télévisions strand Complément d’Enquête and an in-depth report by Mediapart, which both came out last year.
The actor has vehemently denied the rape allegations and mounting sexual assault accusations against him. In an open letter published in Le Figaro newspaper last October, he suggested his acts and behaviour had been misinterpreted.
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