Gérard Depardieu found guilty of sexual assault in landmark French trial

Actor Gerard Depardieu arrives connected March 24, 2025, successful Paris to look proceedings for the alleged intersexual assaults of 2 women connected a movie acceptable successful 2021. Aurelien Morissard/AP hide caption

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Aurelien Morissard/AP

PARIS – A French tribunal connected Tuesday recovered Gérard Depardieu blameworthy of sexually assaulting 2 women connected a movie set, sentencing the French movie icon to an 18-month suspended situation term.

Judges said some women gave consistent, credible accounts of being groped by the actor, with witnesser grounds supporting their claims.

While the tribunal acknowledged immoderate uncertainty astir the timing and determination of Sarah's assault, it emphasized the spot of her descriptions and corroboration.

Depardieu, 76, had denied each wrongdoing, and his lawyer said helium would appeal.

The verdict marks a large infinitesimal for France's long-stalled reckoning with #MeToo, and with broader questions astir however battle is defined, peculiarly wrong the movie industry.

"With this decision, we tin nary longer accidental [that Gérard Depardieu] is not a intersexual abuser," Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, a lawyer for 1 of the victims, told reporters extracurricular the courtroom soon aft the verdict was announced.

The lawsuit was primitively expected to beryllium heard successful precocious 2024, but it was postponed aggregate times, archetypal owed to scheduling issues, and past for aesculapian reasons cited by the defense.

The proceedings opened successful March 2025 and lasted 4 days.

Prosecutors successful March asked for the 18-month suspended situation condemnation and a good of up to €200,000 (roughly $221,000).