Gérard Depardieu is accused of rape by a young actress. After an initial investigation closed without follow-up, the Paris prosecutor's office requested the opening of a new investigation for rape.
In August 2018, an actress lodged a complaint with the Lambesc gendarmerie, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. The young woman accused Gérard Depardieu of rape. The Aix-en Provence prosecutor's office had opened a preliminary investigation before relinquishing it to the Paris prosecutor's office. The facts would indeed have taken place between August 7 and 13, 2018 in the actor's mansion, in the 6th arrondissement, recalls AFP.
The prosecution concluded its preliminary investigation in June 2019, dismissing the complaint. The prosecution then explained that "the many investigations carried out" had "not allowed to characterize the offenses denounced in all their constituent elements". However, the case has just experienced a new twist, since the Paris prosecutor's office has asked an investigating judge to carry out a new investigation, AFP learned on August 1, 2020.
The twenty-year-old actress filed a new complaint with the constitution of a civil party to relaunch the investigation. It will then be up to the examining magistrate to decide whether the investigations are actually relaunched, which is generally the case. Gérard Depardieu denies the accusations.
Maître Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, the plaintiff's lawyer, explains that she "hopes that justice, and in particular the judicial authorities […], can do their work serenely and in peace". They regret that the preliminary investigation was "inexplicably" closed without continuation. Contacted by AFP, Gérard Depardieu's lawyer, Maître Hervé Témine, declined to comment.
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