The Paris prosecutor’s office has requested the referral of director Christophe Ruggia to the criminal court for sexual assault on a minor denounced by Adèle Haenel.
New twists and turns in the Adèle Haenel affair. According to information from RMC, the Paris prosecutor’s office requested this Wednesday, February 6, the referral of Christophe Ruggia to the Paris criminal court, so that he can be tried for “sexual assault on a minor under 15 years old by a person in authority” following the accusations from the actress. At the microphone of Médiapart, the actress from Portrait of the Young Girl on Fire reacted by saying that “it is a step in the legal process but, obviously, it is important.”
In 2019, Adèle Haenel accused the director for whom she had filmed in Les Diables in 2001 of having committed sexual assault on her, from the ages of 12 to 14. She had removed a handrail in the process. At the time, in Médiapart, she denounced “touching” and “permanent sexual harassment”, in a controlling relationship allegedly exercised by Christophe Ruggia between 2001 and 2004. In a right of reply, Christophe Ruggia pleaded ” a misunderstanding while admitting to having “made the mistake of playing the pygmalion” with the actress. He denies any sexual assault on Adèle Haenel.
According to the final indictment, shared by RMC, Adèle Haenel established “constant, precise and dated detailed statements”, denouncing “several episodes of touching of a sexual nature on her penis and her chest while providing details on the progress of the facts, their systematic nature during his visits to Christophe Ruggia’s home, the configuration of the premises, their respective positions and the operating mode.”
The prosecution also noted constant denunciations of the actress to several people, notably the director Céline Sciamma, but also, among other things, the age of the actress and the age difference with the director to establish “the lack of consent” and “coercion”.
