Gerard Depardieu Found Guilty on Sexual Assault Charges, Given 18-Month Suspended Prison Sentence

French actor Gerard Depardieu was convicted of sexual assault against two women and received an 18-month prison sentence from a Paris court.

The verdict stems from sexual assault charges filed by two women, a set decorator and an assistant director, who worked on the shoot of “The Green Shutters” in 2021. The prosecutor had requested an 18-month suspended sentence following a four-day-trial during which Depardieu refuted all accusations. Prosecutors also requested the court to fine the actor and obligate him to undergo psychological treatment, as well as have him registered in the sex offenders file.

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The assistant director reported in her complaint that Depardieu had touched her buttocks in the street, then touched her breasts a few days later on location and touched her buttocks again on another occasion. Depardieu, meanwhile, said “I may have grazed it with my back in the corridor, but I didn’t touch (her buttocks),” Depardieu was quoted saying in Le Monde.

The set decorator has accused Depardieu of having sexually assaulted and harassed her during filming by making several crude comments. She alleges that one day, as she walked past him sitting in a corridor, he grabbed her, pulled her toward him, blocked her with his legs and kneaded her on the waist, hips and chest, while making obscene comments. But Depardieu had different version of their encounter. He said he only grabbed her hips “so as to not slip.”

As part of a separate case, the famous French actor has been, since Dec. 16, 2020, indicted over allegations of rape and sexual assault filed by actress Charlotte Arnould in 2018.

Last August, the Paris public prosecutor’s office requested in a final indictment that Depardieu be referred to the departmental criminal court to stand trial for rape by digital penetration and sexual assault that allegedly occurred on Aug. 7 and 13 of 2018. The examining magistrate now has to decide what direction to give to the proceedings. Depardieu, who has triggered a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement in France, was also accused by 13 women of sexually inappropriate behavior in a report published by French investigative news website Médiapart in April 2023.

In spite of the accusations and verdict that Depardieu is facing, the actor was offered a role by Fanny Ardant, the well-known French actress-turned-filmmaker who took a stand for him during the trial. Ardant’s film, titled “Elle regardait sans plus rien voir,” has reportedly began filming in Portugal last month.