The Paris Prosecutor’s Office has requested that the actor Gerard Depardieu be tried in a criminal court in connection with the rape allegations made by the actress Charlotte ArnouldFrench media reported on Thursday.
The investigating judge must now decide whether or not to accept the application.
Depardieu is already facing trial this October on separate charges of sexually assaulting two women on the set of the film. The Green Shutters in 2021.
The new application relates to allegations of two counts of rape made in a police report by Arnould in August 2018.
The actress, whose parents were friends of the actor, alleges that Depardieu raped her on August 7 and 13, 2018, when she visited his Paris home seeking career advice.
Arnould was the first woman to sue Depardieu in court over sexual assault allegations, but his decision came amid growing rumours about the actor’s sexually inappropriate treatment of female extras and crew members on film sets.
Her complaint was initially dismissed by the courts after a nine-month investigation due to lack of evidence, but she filed a second complaint as a civil party, leading to the appointment of an investigating judge in 2020 and Depardieu being charged with rape and sexual assault in 2021.
Arnould’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, told French news channel BFMTV on Thursday that the request for a trial marks an important development in the case.
“For Charlotte Arnould, this is a major step forward on the road to a trial. She is now looking forward to the end of the investigation,” she said.
The fall of Gérard Depardieu
Depardieu, once one of France’s most acclaimed actors, has lost public popularity over the past 18 months due to a series of investigations into their behavior towards womenincluding an explosive documentary produced by the France Télévisions Complément d’Enquête television channel and an in-depth report by Mediapart, both published last year.
The actor has vehemently denied the allegations of rape and sexual assault against him. In an open letter published in Le Figaro newspaper last October, he suggested that his actions and behaviour had been misinterpreted.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
