A Spanish journalist has made a recent rape allegation in opposition to French movie star Gerard Depardieu – two weeks after one other alleged sufferer jumped to her demise into the River Seine.
Ruth Baza, 51, filed the felony grievance with police in Spain final week for the alleged rape, including to greater than a dozen different ladies who’ve accused the 74-year-old Oscar and Bafta-nominated actor of sexually abusing them.
The Spanish author alleged that she was raped by Depardieu when she was interviewing him in Paris for the Cinemania journal on October 12 1995.
She claims that Depardieu kissed her on the face and penetrated her along with his fingers by her garments – an allegation formally lodged as rape by police, La Vanguardia experiences.
Baza, who on the time was 23 whereas Depardieu was 46, spoke of ‘an intrusion with none consent, at any time’, including that she felt ‘paralysed’ throughout the incident.
A Spanish journalist has made a recent rape allegation in opposition to French movie star Gerard Depardieu (pictured at Cannes Film Festival in 2015)
It comes after a felony inquiry was opened into the ‘mysterious demise’ of French actress Emmanuelle Debever (pictured) who had accused Gérard Depardieu of sexual violence
It allegedly came about on the premises of the previous manufacturing firm Roissy Films.
She initially spoke to AFP of ‘sexual assault’ however when requested if she had been raped, she stated sure.
‘The police described it as such,’ she stated.
Under Spain’s sexual consent legislation handed final 12 months, the cost of sexual assault takes in a big selection of crimes, from on-line abuse and groping to rape, every with completely different attainable punishments.
A rape conviction can carry a most sentence of 15 years.
Depardieu, an icon of French cinema with greater than 200 roles to his identify, was charged with rape in France in 2020 and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by greater than a dozen ladies.
A French tv report this month that included footage of the actor making sexist feedback has thrown the allegations again within the limelight and reignited a debate about sexism in French cinema.
Baza instructed AFP that she had ‘fully’ forgotten the alleged assault till she learn an investigation printed by the information web site Mediapart in April, during which 13 ladies accused the actor of sexual violence.
Baza, who on the time was 23 whereas Depardieu (pictured in 2013) was 46, spoke of ‘an intrusion with none consent, at any time’, including that she felt ‘paralysed’ throughout the incident
The article provoked ‘an interior click on’ and ‘flashes’ of reminiscence, which she stated she corroborated by private notes she took on the time.
The felony grievance has little likelihood of resulting in fees in opposition to the actor for the reason that occasions it refers to have already handed the statute of limitations in France.
Baza stated she determined to file her grievance regardless of this within the hope that it could ‘assist different individuals’ to do the identical.
Prosecutors in Paris are additionally probing the ‘mysterious demise’ of actress Emmanuelle Debever, 60, who claimed she was additionally sexually assaulted by Depardieu.
It is now feared that the final hours of Debever could also be linked to a number of abuse accusations levelled by ladies in opposition to the movie star.
Ms Debever disappeared from the house she shared with an unidentified accomplice in Paris late final month, earlier than apparently leaping off a bridge within the French capital eight days later.
She survived the autumn, and was plucked out of the water by emergency employees, however died in hospital shortly afterwards.
This was on December 7 – the precise day a brand new documentary entitled Gérard Depardieu: The Fall of the Ogre was broadcast throughout France.
It contained disturbing particulars of an alleged assault by Depardieu on Ms Debever, when she was nonetheless a young person.
It was initially thought that Ms Debever dedicated suicide, however when detectives grew to become conscious of quite a few accusations being made in opposition to Depardieu within the France 2 programme, the course of the inquiry modified.
A spokesman for Paris prosecutors stated: ‘The truth was then talked about within the media that this actress [Ms Debever] had complained about inappropriate behaviour from Gérard Depardieu, particularly by a submit on Facebook in 2019.
‘In view of this new factor, an investigation into the causes of [Ms Debever’s] demise was opened.’
It was entrusted to judicial police who should ‘examine the circumstances which can have led to this mysterious demise,’ stated the spokesman.
Per week earlier than the inquiry was launched, one other French actress change into the second girl to file a proper intercourse assault grievance in opposition to Depardieu, saying he handled her like ‘a chunk of meat’.
Paris prosecutors confirmed that Hélène Darras, 43, reported Depardieu in September. The pair appeared collectively within the 2007 movie Disco, when Darras was 26, and allegedly assaulted.
Waiving her authorized proper to anonymity, Ms Darras instructed the identical Further Investigation (Complément d’enquete) documentary sequence: ‘He [Depardieu] is unmanageable.
‘He appears to be like at me as if I had been a chunk of meat. I’ve an ultra-tight gown, he pulls me nearer to him by the waist, then he runs his hand over my hips, over my bum.’
Ms Darras stated Depardieu smelled of ‘spilled alcohol’ as he invited her to his dressing room.
She stated she was initially terrified of complaining concerning the ‘king of the present’, so waited 16 years to go the authorities.
French actress Charlotte Arnould (pictured) went public together with her accusation that Depardieu, 74, raped her in his Paris mansion. Ms Arnould, 33, renounced her authorized proper to anonymity on the finish of 2021, to protest at how lengthy the investigation is taking
Helene Darras, a French actress who claims Depardieu assaulted her in 2007
It follows at the very least 14 different ladies becoming a member of alleged rape sufferer Charlotte Arnould, now 28, in accusing the actor of felony behaviour.
There is CCTV footage of Depardieu performing a intercourse act on Arnould at his Paris mansion in August 2018, however he insists it was consensual.
Ms Arnould renounced her authorized proper to anonymity on the finish of 2021, following Depardieu being charged with rape and sexual assault.
Within a couple of days of his indictment, Depardieu was again engaged on the Seine River location of the police drama Maigret And The Dead Girl, during which he starred with Jade Labeste.
In October, he broke his silence over claims that he’s a serial intercourse abuser saying: ‘I’m neither a rapist nor a predator.’
On Monday, the Grevin Museum in Paris eliminated the wax determine of Depardieu amid the brand new claims.
That adopted the Belgian municipality’s choice to strip the actor of the honorary citizen title after the Quebec province of Canada additionally withdrew its prime honour to the actor.