French director convicted of sexual assault in MeToo trial, avoids jail sentence
Christophe Ruggia given two years’ house arrest over abuse of Adèle Haenel when she was aged between 12 and 15.
A French film director has been found guilty of sexually assaulting the actor Adèle Haenel in the early 2000s when she was between 12 and 15, but was not jailed, following a landmark #MeToo trial.
Christophe Ruggia, 60, who denied abusing Haenel, was given a four-year sentence with two years suspended and two to be served under house arrest with an electronic bracelet.
Haenel, now 35, was one of the first leading actors to accuse the country’s film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse.
Haenel, who has won two Césars, the French Oscars, had accused Ruggia of subjecting her to “permanent sexual harassment” during and after the making of his 2002 movie The Devils in which she played a girl with autism. She said Ruggia had repeatedly touched her inappropriately.
Haenel, acclaimed for her performance in the 2019 French film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, has said she felt guilty after the filming of The Devils and had suicidal thoughts.
Ruggia had told the court he understood the s shoot had been “painful” for the actor but accused her of creating a “parallel universe” regarding the abuse. Other crew members working on the film described his behaviour towards Haenel as “invasive” and “misplaced”.
After Monday’s judgment, Ruggia’s lawyer, Fanny Collin, said he would be appealing against his conviction.
The court also ordered the director to pay Haenel €15,000 in damages and €20,000 for the years of psychological therapy she had to have as a result of the abuse.
In 2020, Haenel stormed out of the Césars ceremony in Paris shouting “Shame!” after the director Roman Polanski – who is still sought in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 – was named best director for his film An Officer and a Spy.
In May 2023, Haenel, who won her first César in 2014 for her supporting role in Suzanne and a second for best actress for Love at First Fight the following year, announced she was ending her cinema career, accusing the industry of “widespread complicity” with sexual abusers.
Several female stars of French cinema were in the courtroom to hear the verdict, including Judith Godrèche, one of the figureheads of France’s #MeToo movement, and the director Céline Sciamma, Haenel’s ex-partner and the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Godrèche hugged Haenel after the verdict.
In a letter published in Telerama magazine, Haenel wrote: “I decided to politicise my retirement from cinema to denounce the general complacency of the profession towards sexual aggressors and more generally the way in which this sphere collaborates with the mortal, ecocidal, racist order of the world such as it is.’ She said it was urgent to “raise the alarm”.
Gérard Depardieu is to appear in court on sexual assault charges in the next major #MeToo trial in France. The hearing was adjourned in October until 24 March after the star’s lawyer said his client was too ill to appear. Depardieu will have a medical examination in early March to determine if he is fit to appear.
The 76-year-old faces accusations from two women of sexual abuse, assault and harassment that allegedly took place during a 2021 shoot on the set of the film Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters). The actor has denied the allegations and claims he has been targeted by “false accusations”.
About 20 women have accused Depardieu of various sexual offences, including rape and sexual assault, all of which the actor has denied. In an open letter published in 2023, he said: “Never, ever have I abused a woman.”
Last year, Godrèche, who has accused two high-profile directors of raping her as a teenager, urged the cinema industry to face up to sexual abuse. Godrèche told the Césars ceremony the film world had to speak out about abusive, powerful men even if it meant risking careers.
“Let us not embody heroines on screen, only to find ourselves hiding in the woods in real life; let us not embody revolutionary or humanist heroes, only to wake up in the morning knowing that a director has abused a young actress and say nothing,” she said.
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