Depardieu sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexual assault

French actor Gérard Depardieu was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison, suspended, for two sexual assaults committed during a film shoot in 2021, in the first trial of the twenty complaints he has filed for abuse and rape allegedly committed by the actor.

The Paris Criminal Court considered established the facts reported by an assistant director and a decorator during the filming of the movie Les volets verts , starring the French film star, who denied them during the trial .

Depardieu, who is currently filming a movie directed by Fanny Ardant in the Azores, did not attend the reading of the verdict , although the two complainants did attend, welcoming the conviction with a sigh of relief.

The judge also ordered that the actor be registered in the sex offenders' file.

The ruling rejects the arguments put forward by the plaintiff during the trial, considers the victims' testimony to be more solid , and takes into account other evidence, such as messages sent by the victims to their loved ones or certain witnesses.

The actor's lawyer, Jérémie Assous, has announced that he will appeal the conviction and criticized the sentence. "There is no right to a defense," he stated, "because as soon as you are accused of a sexual crime, you are automatically found guilty."

Depardieu, 76 , is also being prosecuted for the alleged rape of actress Charlotte Arnould, whose complaint paved the way for others that have followed over the years.