Gérard Depardieu must be tried on allegations of rape and sexual assault

French actor Gérard Depardieu was sentenced to be tried on allegations of rape and sexual assault in 2018.

Its accuser, actor Charlotte Arnould, said that she had been relieved that the case was going to court, seven years after having filed a complaint.

Depardieu, 76, denied the accusations, insisting that his relationship with Arnould was consensual.

He was convicted in May for sexually assaulting two members of a film production team four years ago – and placed on a list of sex offenders, but not imprisoned. He had denied their allegations.

“Seven years later, seven years of horror and hell … I think I have trouble achieving how huge it is. I am relieved,” wrote Arnould in an article on social networks.

Arnould’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu Diebolt, confirmed that Depardieu had been sentenced to be tried for the alleged assault and rape by digital penetration of Arnould twice in his home in Paris in August 2018.

“My client and I are relieved and confident. It is a form of judicial truth for Charlotte while she awaits the criminal trial,” she said.

The date of the trial has not yet been set.

In a letter published in Le Figaro in 2023, Depardieu denied allegations, writing: “Never, never, I abused a woman.”

“There has never been any coercion, violence or protest between us,” he said, referring to Arnould.

The case was initially rejected for insufficient evidence, but after Arnould filed a complaint as a civil party, a legal inquiry was opened in the summer of 2020.