A year of suspended prison was requested against Nicolás Bedos, on Thursday, September 26, by the prosecutor, with an obligation to pay attention for sexual assault and harassment of three women between 2018 and 2023. “Could we be wrong? No, there is no ambiguity.”declared the prosecutor in his indictment.
In his defense, the actor and director repeated on numerous occasions that he did not remember the events of which he was accused and flatly denied having engaged in inappropriate conduct. “I will never be a sexual aggressor, I do not impose myself”the 45-year-old defendant said. “We can talk about heaviness, we can talk about flirting (…) but there is no sexual intention”.
In the courtroom, in the front row, the young woman who filed the complaint against him burst into tears upon hearing these words. The alleged events date back to the night of 1Ahem to June 2, 2023, during an evening at a nightclub. She accuses the director of walking toward her, head bowed, before extending her right hand toward his penis, over her jeans.
In command, Nicolás Bedos supported “I don’t remember anything” of this evening in which he celebrated his partner’s pregnancy. “I sincerely wish I remembered what happened. » “Our lives have changed, my life has changed” he groaned. “I don’t dispute what he said, but it is his interpretation of a gesture”he continued, arguing that he could never have put his hand “in a woman’s vagina, even over jeans”.
The defendant admitted to having a problem with alcohol, but declared that he was in therapy and that he drank less today, while turning to his partner, Pauline Desmonts, sitting in the front row, and to his sister and mother, also present.
“It costs a lot to file a complaint”
Called in turn to testify on the stand, the complainant had difficulty remembering the night and her voice broke into sobs when she had to simulate the attack. “I couldn’t say how long it lasted. I saw who this man was, his eyes scared me”he explained, snuggling into his gray hoodie. “It’s so hard to report, I can’t sleep anymore… I would have preferred this not to exist”continued the young woman, “but it’s serious”.
In the front row, the other two young women who denounced the director’s behavior listened to this testimony. One of them, a waitress in a Parisian bar, told investigators that Nicolas Bedos had grabbed her waist and kissed her neck on the night of May 11 to 12, 2023, while the latter was drunk.
The other alleged act, described as sexual harassment, dates back to June 2018. The director is suspected of touching a young woman’s stomach and asking her to kiss him, before following her while she went to the bathroom. Neither of these two women filed a complaint, but one of them announced at the opening of the trial that she would become a civil party.
A provocative artist, Nicolas Bedos has become the cream of French cinema, since Jean Dujardin (“OSS 117: Red alert in black Africa”) to Isabelle Adjani (“Masquerade”), through Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet and Fanny Ardant. Several figures in French cinema have been involved in accusations of sexual violence for several months.
