Gerard Depardieu faces new sexual abuse complaint as production assistant says he ‘groped her all over’ during 2014 film shoot when she was 24
- Gerard Depardieu is said to have groped the woman ‘everywhere’ on the film set
- Twelve allegations have been made against the actor, but he denies them all
- The statute of limitations for alleged sexual abuse of an adult in France is six years
A woman has accused French film legend Gerard Depardieu of sexually assaulting her during a film shoot in 2014, according to a police complaint and a newspaper report.
Depardieu, 75, has been accused of rape in another case and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women. He denies the accusations.
The woman filed a complaint on January 9 accusing Depardieu of “assault of a vulnerable person by someone who abuses the authority of his position,” according to the document seen by AFP late Thursday.
She told regional newspaper Le Courrier de l’Ouest that he groped her “everywhere” and made “inappropriate” comments while she was a 24-year-old assistant on the set in western France of the film ‘Le magician et le Siamiois’ 2015. (‘The Wizard and the Siamese’).
The statute of limitations for alleged sexual abuse of an adult is six years in France.
French actor Gerard Depardieu is said to have sexually assaulted the woman in 2014
Depardieu was accused of rape and sexual assault in 2020 after actor Charlotte Arnould filed her own complaint over allegations from 2018.
Another sexual abuse complaint filed last year by actor Helene Darras, who said Depardieu groped her and propositioned her during a 2007 film shoot, has been dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.
Spanish journalist and author Ruth Baza said she filed a complaint against Depardieu in Spain last month, alleging he raped her in Paris in 1995.
The complaint has little hope of leading to charges due to the statute of limitations in France, which is twenty years for the alleged rape of an adult.
But Baza said she decided to go ahead anyway, hoping it would “help other people” do the same.
Repeated accusations against Depardieu have become a frontline of the culture war in France, dividing the film world and pitting feminist groups against the actor’s defenders, including President Emmanuel Macron.
The French leader said in December that Depardieu should enjoy the presumption of innocence, calling him an “immense actor” and insinuating that he was the victim of a “man hunt.”
Macron recently admitted that he had “not said enough how important the words of women who are victims of this violence are.”