Paris prosecutor calls for trial of Gérard Depardieu on rape charges

After a lengthy investigation, Paris prosecutors have requested that Gérard Depardieu be brought to trial on charges of rape by digital penetration and sexual assault by actress Charlotte Arnould.

In a statement to diversity The Paris public prosecutor's office announced today that it had “requested the transfer of Gérard Depardieu to the departmental criminal court to try him for rape by digital penetration and sexual abuse on August 7 and 13, 2018, to the detriment of Charlotte Arnould, born in November 1995.”

The public prosecutor added: “It is now up to the investigating judge to decide how to proceed.”

The case stems from a lawsuit filed in August 2018 by Arnould, an actor and dancer whose parents are old friends of Depardieu. The case was initially closed in 2019 due to lack of evidence, but was reopened in 2020 after Arnould filed a civil lawsuit with the Paris investigating judge. Following a review of the case, Depardieu was formally investigated in July 2020 and charged in December of the same year.

Depardieu addressed Arnould's accusations in an open letter published by Le Figaro on October 1, 2023. In it, he claimed he was “neither a rapist nor a predator.” Without mentioning Arnould by name, Depardieu said: “A woman came to [his] home for the first time, easily and willingly entering [his] Bedroom. She says today that she was raped there.”

On June 19, 2023, a confrontation between Depardieu and Arnould occurred in the judge's office. In September 2023, Depardieu came under fire again after Mediapart published a sensational investigative report in which the actor was accused of sexual misconduct by 13 women.

One of these 13 women, Hélène Darras, an actress with whom Depardieu worked in the 2007 comedy “Disco,” filed a complaint of sexual harassment last September. However, the public prosecutor's office decided to dismiss the case because it was time-barred.

Last December, Depardieu unwittingly sparked a turning point in the #MeToo movement in France when an investigative documentary aired in which he was seen making sexually inappropriate and obscene jokes, including one about a child riding a pony, while filming in North Korea. The documentary was seen by 2.2 million people on the public broadcaster France Television.

Despite all the scandals, French President Emmanuel Macron stood by Depardieu and refused to abolish his Legion of Honor.

“I am a great admirer of Gérard Depardieu,” said Emmanuel Macron on the set of the primetime TV magazine “C'est à vous” when asked to comment on Depardieu's decline last December. “He is a great actor who has recited some of the most beautiful texts. He has made France, our greatest authors, our greatest characters known throughout the world.”