Gerard Depardieu in custody over sexual assault allegations

French actor Gerard Depardieu has been detained for questioning at a police station in Paris, according to local reports.

The 75-year-old was summoned over two separate allegations brought by two women who worked with Depardieu on film sets in 2014 and 2021, broadcater BFMTV said.

The women have reportedly alleged that Mr Depardieu groped them during filming, once in 2014 on the set of The Magician and the Siamese. and the other in 2021, on the set of The Green Shutters.

The Paris police force said it wasn’t authorized to comment and directed questions to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor’s office said it had no comment “at this stage.”

“We have no information to communicate or confirm before having assessed any eventual charges and directions,” the office said.

One of Depardieu’s lawyers, Christian Saint-Palais, was seen walking into a police station in the 14th district of Paris after lunching at a nearby restaurant.

“No need to ask me any questions,” he said. “You know very well that a lawyer cannot speak at this stage of the procedure, and personally I regret that other persons have spoken, so I won’t make any comment.”

One of the two new alleged victim alleged in February that Depardieu grabbed her and touched her breasts on the set of The Green Shutters. Her lawyer told BFMTV that her clinet was “passing through a corridor where Mr Depardieu was sitting”.

“He grabbed her, trapped her between his legs and touched her body up to her breasts,” the lawyer said. “She felt completely powerless, incapable of escaping this trap.”

The alleged 2014 assault was reported to police in January this year, Le Parisien reported.

Depardieu denies wrongdoing and says that any relationships he has had were consensual. In an open letter last October, he said: “I have never, ever abused a woman.” His lawyer is yet to comment on the latest allegations.

In 2020, he was handed preliminary rape and sexual assault charges following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould dating to 2018. The case remains open.

A separate case filed last year and relating to allegations of groping on a 2007 film shoot was dropped by prosecutors for being past the statute of limitations.

Depardieu has faced public accusations by a dozen women of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them.