French MeToo: Directors Benoît Jacquot & Jacques Doillon Taken Into Police Custody For Questioning Over Sexual Assault Allegations
Benoît Jacquot & Jacques Doillon Getty Images
French directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon have been taken into police custody for questioning on accusations of sexual assault made against them by actress and director Judith Godrèche.
French media reported that both men were being questioned by the Paris branch of France’s Brigade for the Protection of Minors.
Godrèche unleashed a fresh MeToo wave in France this year after she decided to speak out about her own experiences of sexual abuse within the French cinema world as a teenager.
She filed official complaints against Jacquot and Doillon in February.
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The actress and director was in a relationship with Jacquot in the late 1980s, which she says began when she was only 14 years old and he was 40.
Godrèche now condemns the relationship, saying she was under Jacquot’s control, and filed a complaint of “rape with constraint” against him in February.
At the same time, she also filed a complaint against Doillon, for “rape with violence”, related to his behavior on and off the set of the 1989 film The 15 Year Old Girl.
Under French law, people accused of a crime can be held in custody for up to 48 hours.
Both men have denied the allegations and their respective lawyers Julia Minkowski and Marie Dosé have denounced the custody measure.