French film icon Gerard Depardieu is charged with rape

FRENCH actor Gérard Depardieu has been charged with the rape and sexual assault of a 22-year-old actress at his Paris mansion in 2018.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation in the summer of 2018 into the allegations against Mr Depardieu but it was subsequently dropped for lack of evidence. The inquiry resumed last summer and Mr Depardieu (72) was charged in December.

Mr Depardieu, France’s most famous actor, is the latest high-profile figure to be charged for rape as movements against sexual abuse pick up pace in the country.

The woman, an actress and dancer according to French media, accuses him of raping and assaulting her several times at his mansion in Paris.

She filed the complaint at a gendarmerie in Lambesc, near Aix-en-Provence, southern France.

Mr Depardieu’s lawyer, Hervé Temime, said the actor, who is free but under judicial supervision, “completely rejects the accusations”.

She reportedly claimed the events took place at the screen icon’s “hotel particulier” – town mansion – in Paris’s central 6th arrondissement on August 7 and 13, 2018.

According to a source close to the investigation, Mr Depardieu is friends with the young woman’s father and had “taken her under his wing”, giving her tips on her acting career.

She studied in a school where he gave lessons. According to her agent, the actress has been “destroyed” by the saga.

She reportedly alleged that he abused her during an “informal rehearsal” for a play. Her lawyer was not available for comment.

Mr Depardieu has appeared in around 170 films, including Jean de Florette, Green Card

and Asterix et Obelix.

He has had run-ins with the law in the past regarding drink-driving.

The charges come in the wake of a string of sexual abuse accusations against high-profile figures in France, including politicians and actors.

Last week, a former French minister, Georges Tron, was jailed for the first time in modern French history over the gang rape and sexual assault on an employee.

The past few months have seen the emergence of #MeTooInceste and #MeTooGay, under which survivors told their stories of abuse.