Gérard Depardieu indicted following sexual abuse and rape allegations

The information was reported by the fake news checking agency AFP before being quickly confirmed by French channel BFMTV on Tuesday, February 23. Gérard Depardieu, a real pillar of French cinema, today aged 72, was indicted on December 16, 2020 for acts of 'rape' and 'sexual assault' that he allegedly committed in the summer of 2018 on a young actress.

The actor 'fully disputes the facts'

The alleged victim, an actress in her twenties, denounced the acting veteran in August 2018 to the Lambesc local police station. She was allegedly raped twice, a few days earlier, on August 7 and 13, 2018, at the actor's Parisian home, a private mansion in the 6th district.

The investigation was initially closed by the Paris prosecutor's office in June 2019 on the grounds that 'the numerous investigations carried out' had 'not made it possible to characterize the offences denounced in all their constituent elements'. It is by filing a new complaint with the constitution of civil party that the actress got the investigation to begin again, in mid-August 2020.

In the wake of this revelation, the actor 'totally disputes the facts of which he is accused' according to the statements of his lawyer, Me Hervé Témime. Gérard Depardieu also deplores 'that this information is made public.'

The actor and the young actress knew each other

A source familiar with the matter reports that the actor is 'a friend of the victim's family.' The source added:

There was absolutely nothing professional about it.

For her part, the lawyer for the complainant, Me Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, asked that 'the privacy and the private life of (her) client be preserved.' No security measure has been taken against the actor, according to BFMTV.