Gerard Depardieu: French actor to face criminal trial in October over alleged sexual assaults on film set

French actor Gerard Depardieu will face a criminal trial in October over alleged sexual assaults on a film set, prosecutors have said. The 75-year-old was detained for several hours earlier today for what media reports said was questioning over accusations by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the actor has been “summoned to appear before the criminal court” after the questioning. A trial will start in October “for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021” against “two victims, on the set of the film The Green Shutters”, the statement said.

The alleged victims were not named.

Broadcaster BFMTV and the daily Le Parisien reported that the actor was summoned on Monday (April 29) morning by Paris police and placed in custody. Depardieu previously has denied any wrongdoing. In an open letter last October, Depardieu said: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”

Depardieu has also been accused by more than a dozen other women of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them. He was handed preliminary rape and sexual assault charges in 2020 following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould. Depardieu has been a global ambassador for French film and enjoyed international fame with several roles in Hollywood.