Film director found guilty of sexual assault in France’s first big #MeToo trial

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court found a filmmaker guilty of sexual assault on French actor Adèle Haenel when she was between 12 and 15 in the early 2000s, in the country's first big #MeToo trial.

Filmmaker Christophe Ruggia was sentenced Monday to two years under house arrest with an electronic bracelet plus a two-year suspended sentence. Ruggia had denied any wrongdoing.

Haenel, now 35, was the first top actor in France to accuse the film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse after the #MeToo movement broke out. In 2019, she accused Ruggia of having repeatedly touched her inappropriately during and after filming of the movie "Les Diables," or "The Devils," in the early 2000s.

Haenel appeared relieved, breathing deeply, as Monday's verdict was being released. She was applauded by some women’s rights activists as she left the courtroom.

The court ruled that Ruggia “took advantage of the dominant position” he had on Haenel at the time. “During quasi-weekly meetings at your home for over three years you had sexualized gestures and attitudes,” as Haenel was “gradually isolated” from her loved ones, the court said in a statement.

Ruggia's lawyer said her client would appeal.

He “maintains that he has never touched Adèle Haenel,” the lawyer, Fanny Colin, said. “Sentenced in these conditions and on the sole basis of her words seems to us not only unjustified but dangerous.”

Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” has in recent years vocally protested what she’s called an insufficient response to sexual abuse in French filmmaking.

At the César Awards in 2020, she walked out of the ceremony after Roman Polanski won best director. Polanski is still wanted in the United States decades after he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

In 2023, Haenel, announced she was quitting the French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors.” She published an open letter in which she said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs.”

While #MeToo initially struggled to find traction in France, some other actors and film industry workers have since spoken out.

French renowned actor Judith Godrèche attended Monday's verdict at the Paris courthouse. "It was a very moving and a very important moment that reminded me of things that, in my case, may go unpunished," she told reporters with tears in her eyes.

Last year, Godrèche accused film director Benoît Jacquot of having raped and physically abused her in a six-year relationship that began when she was 14 years old. Jacquot, who has more than 50 director credits in film and television, was handed preliminary charges of rape, sexual assault and violence in July 2024.

Godrèche is also accusing another film director, Jacques Doillon, of sexual abuse while he was directing a film when she was 15.

Both Jacquot and Doillon have denied the allegations.

In a separate case, French actor Gérard Depardieu is to go on trial in March on charges of sexually assaulting two women on a film set.

Depardieu, who has denied any wrongdoing, is accused of using "violence, coercion, surprise or threat" in the alleged sexual assaults that prosecutors say took place in 2021 on the set of "Les Volets verts," or "The Green Shutters."