Il Nuovo Postiglione - French director avoids time in jail despite conviction for abusing child actor

Adele Haenel, 35, accused filmmaker Christophe Ruggia, 60, of assaulting her in the early 2000s when she was between 12 and 14 and he was in his late 30s, accusations he has called "pure lies".

"The court finds you guilty," the presiding judge told the filmmaker.

"You took advantage of your position of power over the young actress."

Haenel, who had arrived early in court and paced nervously up and down the room before the ruling, did not make a statement but appeared relieved.

She left the courtroom to a hail of cheers and applause.

Haenel, who starred in the 2019 drama "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" before quitting cinema, was the first prominent actor to accuse the French film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse.

Ruggia directed Haenel in the 2002 movie "The Devils", the tale of an incestuous relationship between a boy and his autistic sister. It was her first film role.

The film contains sex scenes between the children and close-ups of Haenel's naked body.

Investigators said before the trial that members of the film crew had told them of their "unease" with Ruggia's behaviour on set.

Between 2001 and 2004, after shooting the film, the teenager went to see Ruggia nearly every Saturday.

During these visits, she has accused him of caressing her thighs and touching her genitals and breasts.

- 'Injustice' -

The Paris court handed Ruggia a four-year prison sentence, two years of which were suspended and two of which are to be served with the bracelet instead of in jail.

It ordered him to pay Haenel 15,000 euros ($15,400) in damages, as well as 20,000 euros ($20,500) for the years of psychological therapy she had to follow as a result of the abuse.

One of Ruggia's lawyers said the filmmaker would be filing an appeal.

"Because we cannot accept this injustice, Christophe Ruggia is as we speak on his way... to appeal the ruling," lawyer Fanny Collin told journalists.

During two days of hearings in December, Haenel said she did not know how to escape the clutches of the director who told her that she owed him her career.

"Who was there to say: 'It's not your fault. It's grooming. It's violence'?" she said at the trial.

"You can't abuse children like that," she said.

During the trial, Haenel at one point told Ruggia to "shut up" and stormed out of the courtroom, after he alleged he had in fact sought to protect Haenel from mockery in school over the sex scenes in "The Devils".

Ruggia told the court that he had never been attracted to Haenel, accusing her of seeking to take revenge on him for not giving her further acting roles.

- Award ceremony protest -

In 2019, Haenel went public with the charges of the assaults, stunning the French film industry, which had been slower than Hollywood to react to the #MeToo movement.

In 2020, Haenel stormed out of the industry's Cesars award ceremony in protest against a prize awarded to veteran director Roman Polanski, who is wanted in the United States for statutory rape.

In 2023, she quit cinema, complaining that the French film industry was turning a blind eye to sexual abuse.

Several other allegations have rocked France over the past few years.

Veteran film star Gerard Depardieu, 76, is to stand trial in March accused of sexually assaulting two women. He denies the accusations.

Actor Judith Godreche, 52, said last year two French directors -- Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon -- had both sexually abused her when she was a teenager. Both deny the charges.

Since breaking her silence, Godreche has become a prominent voice in France's #MeToo movement, prompting parliament to create an oversight body to investigate gender-based violence in the cultural sectors.

She is however unlikely to face Jacquot and Doillon in court, as her accusations were filed too late under the statute of limitations.

But Godreche attended Monday's verdict against Ruggia.

"Justice has been done. It was very moving for me," she said. But "more needs to be done to end violence against women."

Q.Bernardi--INP