Another case of sexual violence has been opened against Gerard Depardieu: “wolf trap”

French actor Gerard Depardieu again found himself in the crosshairs of the French Themis. Another woman has filed a lawsuit against the actor due to alleged sexual harassment on the set in 2021.

French media reported that this is the second time Depardieu, 75, has been accused of sexual misconduct while filming the 2022 film Green Shutters, which also starred Anouk Greenberg and Fanny Ardant, in Paris.

Karine Durieux Dibole, a lawyer for the production designer Amelie who filed the lawsuit, told AFP on Sunday that she had filed a legal complaint with the prosecutor’s office.

Amelie told online newspaper Mediapart that Depardieu made a series of offensive remarks to her on September 10, 2021. While she was sitting in the hallway, the actor “cruelly grabbed her,” pressed her between his thighs with “phenomenal strength” and “kneaded her waist and stomach all the way to her chest,” the lady said.

She added that the actor’s bodyguard on set interrupted the incident, which she described as being caught in a “wolf trap.”

Durieux Dibole told BFM TV: “She didn’t press charges at the time because she didn’t want to overshadow the work of her colleagues and the release of the film, and the kindness of the film crew allowed her to think that everything would be fine. But the trauma remains.”

She added that it resurfaced last October when Depardieu published an open letter saying: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”

According to the lawyer, after these events the plaintiff was unable to work, she had panic attacks and post-traumatic stress.

Durieux Dibole told AFP that Amelie filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office last Friday, alleging she had been subjected to sexual violence, sexist insults and harassment. The prosecutor will decide whether there is a case to answer and, if so, what legal steps should be taken to investigate. The Paris prosecutor’s office did not confirm the filing of the complaint, and Depardieu’s lawyers did not comment on the situation, The Guardian notes.

According to Mediapart, another woman named Sarah, a 33-year-old assistant director on the same shoot, accused Depardieu of touching her “breasts and buttocks.”

In December 2020, Depardieu was formally investigated for alleged “rape and sexual assault” against actor Charlotte Arnoux, who told police that Depardieu raped her in his Paris apartment in 2018, when she was 22 years old.

Depardieu said the allegations were “baseless” and that any meeting with Arnoux was consensual. He tried to have the charges dropped, but a Paris court last year said there was “serious and corroborated evidence to justify maintaining the charges against Gerard Depardieu.”

A dozen more women have come forward accusing the actor of sexual assault. In January, prosecutors ordered the case brought by actress Hélène Darras, who alleged Depardieu sexually assaulted her during the filming of the 2007 film Disco, to be dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.

Darras was one of 13 women who accused Depardieu of sexual harassment. As the British The Guardian also emphasizes, the charges against the actor “are not least related to his decision to move to Russia.”

This caused a public outcry. So, in December, about 50 art workers wrote an open letter protesting against the “lynching” of Depardieu. In response, a group of approximately 600 people signed a counter letter calling for help and support for victims of sexual violence.

Emmanuel Macron expressed support for the actor in a television interview, calling him “an outstanding actor… of whom France is proud” and saying he should benefit from the presumption of innocence. The French President said Depardieu was the target of “persecution.”