The lawsuit by actress Hélène Darras, who accused actor Gérard Depardieu of sexually abusing her during a film shoot in 2007, was dropped at the end of December due to the statute of limitations, the Paris public prosecutor's office said on Monday.
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Hélène Darras could not immediately be reached. Neither did the French cinema giant's lawyers.
The complaint is dated September 10th. The actress, who has already testified in court and at Mediapart, wanted to “respond to the defense who downplays our allegations by saying they are 'just' witness statements,” she told AFP in early December.
She was referring to the accusations against Gérard Depardieu, who are against it, which have been published several times in the press.
“It took me a year to go from testifying to complaining,” she also admitted. “Walking through the door of the police station and telling a police officer that your private parts have been touched is not easy, it takes time to think about it,” she added.
The investigative magazine Complément d'investigation, broadcast on France 2, revealed the complaint of Ms Darras, who told her story there. During filming, “Gérard Depardieu strokes his hand over my hips, over my buttocks” and “then says to me bluntly: 'Do you want to come to my dressing room?'” The actress says “No,” but “it doesn't change anything,” she says . “He will continue to grope me between takes,” she adds.
In another case, Gérard Depardieu was charged with rape and sexual assault in Paris on December 16, 2020, following a complaint filed by another actress, Charlotte Arnould, denouncing two rapes at the actor's Paris home at the end of August 2018.
Ms Arnould's lawyer, Me Carine Durrieu Diebolt, recently wrote to the Paris prosecutor's office asking them to analyze the Complément d'investigation report, the prosecutor's office said, BFM TV confirms.
The lawyer believes that Mr. Depardieu's on-camera statements likely have a criminal classification, which prosecutors are currently analyzing.
In the viewfinder: a new video recorded in 2018 during a trip to North Korea with the writer Yann Moix, where we hear Gérard Depardieu imitate the sexual act with gestures and throat sounds and make comments that shock.
At one stud farm, the actor notes in particular that “women like to ride, [car] her clitoris rubs against the saddle […], they enjoy it immensely. And to continue: “They are big sluts.”