Gérard Depardieu sexual assault claim dropped due to statute of limitations

Gérard Depardieu can take it easy now as a sexual assault complaint against him has been dropped because it was past the statute of limitations, according to prosecutors in Paris. This was in connection with French actor Hélène Darras’s complaint against Gérard.

Hélène Darras’s complaint against Gérard relates to the filming of Disco in 2007, during which Depardieu allegedly groped and propositioned her.

At the time, Darras was one of the 13 women who accused Gérard of sexual misconduct in an investigative story that ran on French investigative website Mediapart in April 2023. Darras was interviewed as part of that investigation. Post that, she filed her complaint.

AFP reported that she said at the time, “It took me a year to go from talking about what happened to the criminal complaint. Walking through the door of a police station, telling an officer someone touched your intimate parts, it’s not easy, you need time to think about it.”

But she had “wanted to respond to the defence that plays down our allegations by saying they’re ‘just’ witness accounts”, Darras said.

In her complaint, Darras alleged that he touched her hips and buttocks and invited her into his dressing room. He continued even after she asked him to stop.

Gérard Depardieu, 75, has been charged with rape in another case and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women. He denies those allegations.

In his defence, in October 2023, he published an open letter in a French newspaper. In Le Figaro, he wrote, “Never, ever have I abused a woman.”

(With inputs from agencies)