(Paris) The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Tuesday the dismissal order in favor of the French producer Luc Besson, accused since 2018 of rape by the Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy, in an emblematic file of the #metoo era.
Posted at 9:39
“The court confirmed my client’s innocence. A dozen procedural initiatives by Mme Van Roy all ended the same way. Luc Besson regrets these four lost years, ”said his lawyer, Mr.and Thierry Marembert.
“We are appealing immediately,” replied Mr.and Antoine Gitton, one of the actress’ lawyers. “It was a sordid news item and it becomes a state affair […] I didn’t see any justice there, only a sham justice of petty virtue”.
On May 18, 2018, Sand Van Roy had filed a complaint for rape, a few hours after an appointment in a Parisian palace, the protagonists of which gave two versions. According to the actress, an imposed digital anal penetration then fainting, despite her orders to stop. For Luc Besson, a consented vaginal intercourse imbued with “sweetness”.
Two months later, the actress filed a complaint for other rapes and sexual assaults committed between 2016 and 2018, episodes of a “relationship of professional influence” under threats of “retaliation on her career as an actress”.
The preliminary investigation had been dismissed in February 2019 by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The actress, who appears in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets by Luc Besson released in 2017, then filed a complaint with civil action and obtained referral to an investigating judge in October 2019.
Two years later, on December 9, another investigating magistrate issued a dismissal order “in the absence of any material element to support the statements” of the 34-year-old complainant. During the appeal hearing on April 19, the public prosecutor’s office requested confirmation of the dismissal.
A vision rejected by Sand Van Roy who radically disputes with his lawyers the content of the judicial information, according to her biased and incomplete.
“Luc Besson has never been confronted with the material evidence which overwhelms him, for example the photographic report made to the medico-judicial units on the day of the facts, the blows and injuries on the body” of Sand Van Roy, denounced Mand Anthony Gitton.
The 63-year-old producer, known for The big Blue, The fifth Element Where Leon, has consistently denied these accusations. He said in October 2019 that he had “never physically or morally forced a woman into anything”.
In court, at least three women mentioned facts ranging from “kisses on the neck” to “attempted rape”, disputed by Mr. Besson.
Other women had also testified to the online media Mediapart of inappropriate gestures or sexual assault, often prescribed, on the part of the director.