Il Nuovo Postiglione - French actor outraged as director denies child abuse in court

Adele Haenel, 35, has accused filmmaker Christophe Ruggia, 59, of assaulting her in the early 2000s when she was between 12 and 14 and he was in his late 30s, allegations he has called "pure lies".

The trial since Monday come as France's film industry is rocked by allegations of sexual abuse.

Haenel, who starred in 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 the ill treatment.

The prosecutor on Tuesday requested two years detention with an electronic bracelet plus a three-year suspended sentence against the director.

Ruggia directed Haenel in the 2002 movie "The Devils", a 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.

"He chose to sexually assault her. He had his whole conscience as a man -- as an adult -- to behave otherwise," prosecutor Camille Poch said.

She asked that Ruggia also be listed as a sex offender.

- 'It's grooming' -

But Ruggia has rejected these claims.

He told the court earlier on Tuesday that he had in fact sought to protect Haenel from mockery in school over the sex scenes in "The Devils".

This caused her to be outraged.

"Would you just shut up?" she shouted, banging her hands on the table in front of her.

Haenel marched out and only returned half an hour later with her lawyer, refusing to look at Ruggia.

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

Haenel on Tuesday described "normality that shifted by degrees" into abuse.

"Who was there to say, 'It's not your fault. It's grooming. It's violence'?" she said.

"You can't abuse children like that. There are consequences. No one helped that child," she said, speaking of her younger self.

- 'Unfortunate gesture' -

Ruggia's former partner Mona Achache, 43, told the court about the filmmaker confessing to a single "unfortunate gesture" on one of the Saturday visits.

She said Ruggia told her he had been "madly in love" with the young actress.

"He told me they were watching a film on the sofa, she had rested her head on his lap, and his hand moved onto her breast," she said.

"It was a version of the story that highlighted his virtue in removing his hand."

The filmmaker had also said something to his sister.

"I got the impression he felt guilty," Veronique Ruggia said.

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.

Last year, she quit cinema over what she called the French film industry turning a blind eye towards sexual abusers.

Several other allegations have rocked the film sector over the past few years.

Cinema legend Gerard Depardieu, 75, is to stand trial in March accused of sexually assaulting two women. He denies the accusations.

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

E.Scozzafava--INP