A woman who accused French actor Gérard Depardieu of raping her has refiled her complaint, triggering the reopening of the investigation against him.
The accuser, identified only as an actor in her 20s, said that 71-year-old Depardieu raped and assaulted her on two occasions at his Paris home in August 2018. The case was dropped last year after prosecutors cited lack of evidence, the Guardian reports. But in France, a refiled case nearly always results in it being examined by an investigating magistrate, which is what is happening now.
Depardieu’s lawyer told AFP that he had not been notified about the case, but called it a “non-event, as it is an automatic decision.”
The woman’s lawyer, however, said that her client “has renewed her confidence in the justice system, and remains at its disposition for the next steps in the inquiry.”
Depardieu has had a slate of past legal troubles. In 2011, he urinated into a bottle on a Dublin-bound flight, and in 2012, he was accused of assault and battery after he punched a motorist in Paris. Later that year, he was arrested for driving while drunk after falling off a scooter.
In the case of the alleged rape, reports said that Depardieu had taken the actor “under his wing” and given her career advice. She said that his assaults took place during informal rehearsals for a theater production.