(13 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 13 May 2025
1. Plaintiff (54-year-old set dresser, centre) arriving and entering courtroom
2. SOUNDBITE (French) plaintiff (54-year-old set dresser): ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT++
"I am very moved. Today, I find it hard to express myself. Everything has been perfectly well said by Mrs Durrieu-Diebolt (her lawyer). I am very moved and very satisfied with this decision. For me, it is a victory and a great step forward. We are moving forward, moving forward."
3. Jérémie Assous, Depardieu’s lawyer, walking towards camera after the verdict
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Jérémie Assous, Depardieu’s lawyer: ++PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 5 AND 6++
"Gérard Depardieu was found guilty. He will obviously appeal. But what is very important and what must be remembered from this decision is that for the 10th chamber of the Paris criminal court, accusation equals conviction. From the moment you are implicated today in a so-called sexual assault case, you are automatically condemned. And it doesn’t matter if there are multiple contradictions, lies, or even physical inconsistencies and incompatibilities, it is considered absolutely unimportant. And worse, it is considered that questioning the accusations is an additional assault. We are at a stage where we have reached a new level, which means that now the defense, even in this type of trial, is no longer accepted."
5. Lawyers representing the two plaintiffs and a plaintiff (54-year-old set dresser) walking towards camera after the verdict
6. Policemen in front of courtroom
7. Assous leaving
STORYLINE:
Gérard Depardieu was found guilty Tuesday of sexually assaulting two women on the set of a movie in which he starred in 2021 and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
The actor, 76, was also fined a total of 29,040 euros (around $32,350), and the court requested that he be registered in the national sex offender database.
He was convicted of having groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant during the filming of “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”).
The case was widely seen as a key post-#MeToo test of how French society and its film industry address allegations of sexual misconduct involving prominent figures.
Depardieu, who has denied the accusations, didn’t attend the hearing in Paris. Depardieu’s lawyer said that his client would appeal the decision.
"I am very moved and very satisfied with this decision," the set dresser said following the court decision. "For me, it is a victory and a great step forward."
Depardieu’s long and storied career — he told the court that he’s made more than 250 films — has turned him into a French movie giant.
He was Oscar-nominated in 1991 for his performance as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac.
During the four-day trial in March, Depardieu rejected the accusations, saying he’s “not like that.”
He acknowledged that he had used vulgar and sexualized language on the film set and that he grabbed the set dresser’s hips during an argument but denied that his behavior was sexual.
The set dresser described the alleged assault, saying the actor pincered her between his legs as she squeezed past him in a narrow corridor.
She said he grabbed her hips then started “palpating” her behind and “in front, around.” She ran her hands near her buttocks, hips and pubic area to show what she allegedly experienced. She said he then grabbed her chest.
The other plaintiff, an assistant, said that Depardieu groped her buttocks and her breasts during three separate incidents on the film set.
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