Depardieu is accused of raping dancer, 22
GERARD Depardieu has been accused of raping a young woman at his Paris mansion.
The French dancer, 22, has alleged that the film star sexually assaulted her twice.
She claimed the abuse took place when she visited the 69-year-old’s sprawling home in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on august 7 and 13. Depardieu strenuously denied the allegations, his lawyer told aFP news agency.
One of France’s most famous actors, Depardieu has starred in films such as Cyrano De Bergerac, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and Jean De Florette.
Depardieu’s accuser made her statement to police in Lambesc, southern France, and the case was passed to prosecutors in the French capital.
The unnamed woman is a dancer and actress who knew the star before the alleged offences took place.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Herve Temime, said his client ‘absolutely’ denied any accusation of rape.
‘I had a long meeting with Gerard Depardieu and I am absolutely convinced his innocence will be established,’ Mr Temime told France Info radio.
as well as appearing in more than 150 films in the US and Europe, Depardieu is a Paris restaurateur and owns a vineyard in Burgundy. But he has become embroiled in a number of previous controversies.
In 2011 he was ordered off a plane after urinating in the aisle as the crew were getting ready to take off. Depardieu yelled ‘I need to pee, I need to pee’ as the packed flight from Paris to Dublin prepared to taxi along the runway.
The following year, he was accused of assault after his scooter collided with a motorist’s car in the 6th arrondissement.
The driver of the car claimed a heated argument led to Depardieu punching him in the face.
The actor, who has previously boasted of drinking five or six wine bottles a day, was fined last year after falling off his scooter while driving drunk in Paris.
He failed to turn up at the hearing at which he was fined £3,500 and had his licence suspended for six months. He was given russian citizenship in 2013 by russian president, Vladimir Putin after
‘Both an ogre and a poet’
publicly criticising France’s high taxes under socialist President Francois Hollande and taking up residence abroad.
Depardieu, born in 1948 to an illiterate, alcoholic metal worker, was one of five children raised in extreme poverty in central France.
In his 2014 autobiography This Is How It Happened, Depardieu said his mother told him as a child she had tried to abort him using knitting needles to avoid the expense of another baby.
He left school at 13 and has previously told of his poor background and tough childhood of petty crime, which resulted in a spell in prison for car theft.
Depardieu made his name in the 1974 Bertrand Blier erotic comedy drama Les Valseuses ( Going Places) and starred in the awardwinning 1980 Francois Truffaut film The Last Metro.
He gained international recognition in 1990 after starring in the US comedy Green Card, for which he won a Golden Globe, and went on to appear in Kenneth Brannagh’s 1996 version of Hamlet. Once described by French actress Brigitte Fossey as ‘both an ogre and a poet’, Depardieu has worked for directors ranging from Bernardo Bertolucci and andrzej Wajda to Jean-Luc Godard and ridley Scott.
He has starred alongside actresses including Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle adjani, Sophia Loren, Fanny ardant and Kate Winslet. He divorced his wife Elisabeth in 1996 and since 2005 has been in a relationship with Clementine Igou.