Gerard Depardieu Faces New Sexual Assault Allegations in Police Complaint
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Gerard Depardieu, who has already been indicted on rape charges in connection to a 2018 case, is facing more sexual assault allegations in a new complaint, Variety has confirmed.
Hélène Darras, a French actor, has filed a police complaint alleging that Depardieu sexually assaulted her during the filming of “Disco” in 2007. The news, which was first reported by French broadcaster France 2, was confirmed to Variety by the Paris prosecutor’s office, which said that they are “investigating the complaint internally for the moment.”
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“We’re in the process of analyzing the complaint to see if it should be handled separately or as part of the ongoing case [stemming from the 2018 rape charges],” said a spokesperson for the Paris prosecutor’s office. Asked whether the complaint falls under France’s statute of limitations, the spokesperson said “it depends how we take it into account, and that’s why we’re studying it and haven’t yet transferred it to the dedicated investigative unit.”
Depardieu’s legal representation, which was taken over from Cabinet Temime and is now handled by Christian Jean-Palais, told Variety they had “no comment” to give about the new complaint.
Depardieu was indicted on Dec. 16, 2020 regarding allegations of rape and sexual assault tied to a 2018 lawsuit filed by actor Charlotte Arnould. The case was previously dropped in 2019 following a lack of evidence, but was reopened in 2020 and criminal charges were filed in December. No custodial measures have been taken against the actor.
Darras was part of the 13 women who shared their testimonies in an investigative report published by Mediapart in April. She most recently spoke about the alleged assault in a documentary titled “Gerard Depardieu: La chute de l’ogre,” which aired on French broadcaster France 2 this week. In the documentary, Darras, who was 26 at the time of the alleged assault, said Depardieu “grabbed [her] by the waist” and had a “wandering hand.” She said he put “his hand on [her] bum in an insistent way” and suggested they go to his dressing room. Although Darras rejected his alleged advances, she said he “kept groping [her] between takes.”
Depardieu denied all the allegations in a brief open letter published in Le Figaro newspaper on Oct. 1 and alluded to the rape charges filed by Arnould, whose parents are old friends of his.
Without naming Arnould, Depardieu says “a woman came to [his] home a first time, lightly and willingly stepped into [his] bedroom. She says today that she was raped there.”
That case alone didn’t prevent him from securing high profile film projects, but his career took a severe hit after the Mediapart piece ran with testimonies of 13 more women, including Darras, detailing incidents that allegedly occurred during the filming of 11 films released between 2004 and 2022.
The tour for his long-running music show, “Depardieu Chante Barbara,” was even cut short in the wake of the investigative piece. When questioned about the report back in October, Depardieu’s legal representation at Cabinet Temime said the actor formally denied “all of the accusations that could be subject to criminal law.”
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