French movie legend Gerard Depardieu, 75, is placed in custody in Paris over claims he sexually assaulted two female production workers on film sets

French movie star Gérard Depardieu was today placed in custody at a Paris police station after being accused of sexually assaulting two female workers on film sets.

The 75-year-old, who is already under investigation for multiple similar crimes including rape, is said to have molested production staff on the sets of two films.

One was Les Volets Verts – The Green Shutters – which came out in 2022, and the other was Le Magician et les Siamois – The Magician and the Siamese –which was released in 2015.

An investigating source said on Monday: ‘Mr Depardieu was summoned to appear at a Paris police station today, and is currently in custody.

‘He is being questioned about two alleged sexual assaults that took place in 2014 and 2021’.

Depardieu – who made his name in hit films such as Green Card and The Last Metro – vehemently denies all the accusations against him.

The first complainant said she was attacked in September 2021,when Depardieu touched her intimately, wrapped his legs around her, and used crude language against her.

The woman, a 53-year-old mother named only as Amelia, described a ‘wolf trap’ which was set with ‘phenomenal force’.

A witness was able to pull him away from the woman, it is alleged.

Depardieu later said: ‘I apologise because it is necessary to apologise,’ but continued to call the woman ‘a slut,’ a source told the BFM news outlet.

Les Volets Verts is based on a story by George Simenon about a ‘sacred monster’ theatre star who risks a heart attack while drinking too much and chasing possible sex conquests.

The second complainant says she was attacked in March 2014 during the filming of the short film Le Magician et les Siamois, in Doué-la-Fontaine, near Nantes, in the west of France.

The crew also met at Depardieu’s Paris home, where the 24-year-old production assistant is said to have been molested, while the actor again made obscene comments.

Amelie’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, said evidence pointed to ‘sexual assault, harassment and abuse.’

Ms Durrieu-Diebolt is also representing Charlotte Arnould, 28, who claims she was raped and sexually assaulted by Depardieu.

There is CCTV footage of Depardieu performing a sex act on Ms Arnould at his Paris mansion in August 2018, but he insists it was consensual.

Ms Arnould renounced her legal right to anonymity at the end of 2021, following Depardieu being charged with rape and sexual assault.

Within a few days of his indictment, Depardieu was back working by the Seine River location of the police drama Maigret And The Dead Girl – also by Georges Simenon – in which he starred with Jade Labeste.

In October, he broke his silence over claims that he is a serial sex abuser saying: ‘I am neither a rapist nor a predator.’

Accusing enemies of subjecting him to a ‘lynching’ in the media, he expressed his anger in an open letter to the French press.

Last year, a criminal enquiry was opened into the suspected suicide of a French actress who had accused Depardieu of sexual violence.

It was feared that the last hours of Emmanuelle Debever, 60, may have been linked to the multiple abuse accusations levelled by women against Depardieu.

She died on December 7th – the exact day a new documentary entitled Gérard Depardieu: The Fall of the Ogre was broadcast across France.

It contained disturbing details of an alleged attack by Depardieu on Ms Debever, when she was still a teenager.

In December, another French actress filed a formal sex attack complaint against Depardieu, saying he treated her like ‘a piece of meat’.

Paris prosecutors confirmed that Hélène Darras, 43, reported Depardieu in September.

The pair appeared together in the 2007 film Disco, when Darras was 26, and allegedly assaulted.

Waiving her legal right to anonymity, Ms Darras told the same Further Investigation (Complément d’enquete) documentary series: ‘He [Depardieu] is unmanageable.

‘He looks at me as if I were a piece of meat. I have an ultra-tight dress, he pulls me closer to him by the waist, then he runs his hand over my hips, over my bum.’

And in December 2023, Spanish journalist and writer Ruth Baza filed a complaint in Spain against the actor for rape, for acts dating back to 1995 in Paris.

In the same month, French President Emmanuel Macron sparked fury by defending Mr Depardieu.

Mr Macron appeared on a TV chat show and said he detested the actor being subjected to a ‘manhunt’.