A French Justice of the Peace has ordered movie director Christophe Ruggia to face trial on costs of sexually assaulting an actor when she was a minor, sources near the case stated on Saturday.
The trial on the Paris prison court docket, set for December 9 and 10, follows allegations that Ruggia sexually assaulted actor Adele Haenel within the early 2000s when he was in his mid to late 30s and he or she was beneath 15.
In a court docket doc seen by AFP, the investigating Justice of the Peace stated Haenel’s accusations have been “precise and consistent” and that she had suffered psychological penalties from the assaults.
Potentially aggravating circumstances have been the appreciable age distinction between Ruggia and Haenel, and the “psychological control” that the director progressively exercised over the younger actor because of his place of authority.
Ruggia has denied all the costs towards him, though the director admits to committing “errors”. His legal professionals declined to touch upon Saturday.
AFP was unable to achieve Haenel’s legal professionals.
The Ruggia case is one in all a string of revelations which have prompted new questions on sexual violence in French society, significantly within the creative world.
Ruggia, now 59, was initially charged in 2020 over the accusations.
Haenel, now 35, lodged a criticism towards Ruggia after accusing him of subjecting her to “constant sexual harassment” from the age of 12 to fifteen, together with “forced kisses on the neck” and touching.
Ruggia directed her within the 2002 film “The Devils”, her first movie position.
The accusations shocked the French movie trade, which has been slower than Hollywood to react to the #MeToo motion turning the highlight on sexual abuse within the arts.
But in current months police and investigating magistrates have turned their consideration to a string of allegations.
Cinema legend Gerard Depardieu, 75, put his profession on maintain final autumn after accusations towards him, all of which he denies.
He is to face trial in October accused of sexually assaulting two girls, and likewise dangers a second trial after he was charged in 2020 with the rape of an actor in 2018 when she was 22 and anorexic.
And actor Judith Godreche stated earlier this 12 months two French administrators — Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon — had sexually abused her when she was an adolescent.
Godreche accused Jacquot of raping her throughout a six-year relationship that began when she was 14 and he was 25 years her senior.
She accused Doillon of sexually abusing her when she was 15.
In July, a Justice of the Peace charged 77-year-old Jacquot for allegedly raping two different actors.
Jacquot 80-year-old Jacques Doillon have been detained in July for questioning over the alleged sexual abuse of a lot youthful actresses who starred of their movies — costs each have denied.
And the pinnacle of France’s high cinema establishment, Dominique Boutonnat, stepped down in July after he was convicted of sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.
© 2024 AFP