French prosecutors have called for film star Gerard Depardieu to stand trial for raping a young actress over two days at his Paris home.
The 75-year-old’s alleged victim, Charlotte Arnould, said Thursday’s announcement was “a huge step forward.”
Ms Arnould, now 28, claims Depardieu raped and sexually assaulted her in August 2018.
A source working for the Paris prosecutor’s office said that “Gérard Depardieu has been requested to be referred to the departmental criminal court to be tried for rape by digital penetration and sexual assault on August 7 and 13, 2018.”
The investigation has lasted six full years and evidence includes CCTV footage of Depardieu performing a sexual act on Arnould at his mansion in August 2018.
Gerard Depardieu attends a film premiere in Berlin in January last year
Ms Arnould’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, said the request for a trial was “the result of a long investigation which enabled us to gather the elements that corroborate my client’s words.”
Ms Durrieu-Diebolt added: “For her, this is a great step forward full of hope, while she awaits the order of the investigating judge who will close the investigation.”
Ms Arnoud’s complaint was initially dismissed but was later reopened when more evidence emerged.
Depardieu’s lawyer did not immediately respond to the request for a trial, but the Green Card and Last Metro star has continually maintained that sex with Arnould was consensual.
Depardieu is already scheduled to face another trial in October for alleged sexual assaults against two different women during the filming of a movie in 2021.
Last year, Depardieu broke his silence on allegations that he was a serial sexual abuser, saying: “I am neither a rapist nor a predator.”
Accusing his enemies of having subjected him to a “lynching” in the media, he expressed his anger in an open letter to the French press.
Ms Arnould waived her legal right to anonymity in late 2021 after Depardieu was accused of rape and sexual assault.
Last year, a criminal investigation was also opened into the alleged suicide of a French actress who had accused Depardieu of sexual violence.
French actor Gerard Depardieu poses during a photocall for the second season of the French TV show ‘Marseille’ in 2018
There were fears that the final hours of Emmanuelle Debever, 60, could be linked to the multiple accusations of abuse levelled against Depardieu by women.
He died on December 7, the same day that a new documentary entitled Gérard Depardieu: The Fall of the Ogre was broadcast across France.
It contained disturbing details of an alleged attack by Depardieu on Debever when she was still a teenager.
In December, another French actress filed a formal complaint of sexual assault against Depardieu, saying he treated her like “a piece of meat.”
Paris prosecutors confirmed that Hélène Darras, 43, filed a complaint against Depardieu in September.
The couple appeared together in the 2007 film Disco, when Darras was 26 and was allegedly assaulted.
Waiving her legal right to anonymity, Ms Darras told the same documentary series Complement Investigation: “He (Depardieu) is unmanageable.
“He looks at me like I’m a piece of meat. I’m wearing a very tight dress, he pulls me close to him by the waist and then runs his hand over my hips, over my butt.”
And in December 2023, Spanish journalist and writer Ruth Baza filed a complaint in Spain against the actor for rape, for events dating back to 1995 in Paris.
That same month, French President Emmanuel Macron sparked outrage by defending Depardieu.
Mr Macron appeared on a television talk show and said he hated the actor being subjected to a “manhunt”.
