Verdict due in trial of French film director over child abuse
Adele Haenel, 35, has 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 two-day trial in December came as France's film industry has been rocked by allegations of sexual abuse.
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 the ill treatment.
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.
She told the court that 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. There are consequences. No one helped that child," she said, speaking of her younger self.
During the trial, Haenel at one point told Ruggia to "shut up" and stormed out of the courtroom.
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.
"He chose to sexually assault her. He had his whole conscience as a man -- as an adult -- to behave otherwise," prosecutor Camille Poch said.
The prosecutor requested two years detention with an electronic bracelet plus a three-year suspended sentence against the director.
She asked that Ruggia also be listed as a sex offender, forbidden from contacting Haenel and made to pay her damages.
Ruggia meanwhile 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.
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 over what she said was the French film industry turning a blind eye towards sexual abusers.
The verdict is due to be announced at 1:30 pm (1230 GMT).