Actor storms out of France child abuse trial

A French prosecutor Tuesday demanded two years of house arrest for a filmmaker accused of sexually assaulting an actor when she was a child, after an outburst from the plaintiff over his denying the allegations.

Adele Haenel, 35, has accused filmmaker Christophe Ruggia, 59, 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 landmark #MeToo trial since Monday comes as France's film industry is rocked by allegations of sexual abuse.

On the second and last day of the trial, Haenel told Ruggia to "shut up" and briefly stormed out of courtroom over him seeking to portray himself as a protector.

Haenel, who starred in 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.

The prosecutor on Tuesday requested two years detention with an electronic bracelet plus a three-year suspended sentence against the director.

The verdict is set for February 3.

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.

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.

"He chose to sexually assault her. He had his whole conscience as a man — as an adult — to behave otherwise," prosecutor Camille Poch said.

She asked that Ruggia also be listed as a sex offender, forbidden from contacting Haenel and made to pay her damages.

"It was normality that shifted by degrees" into abuse, Haenel said on Tuesday.

"Who was there to say, 'It's not your fault. It's grooming. It's violence?'" she said.

"You can't abuse children like that. There are consequences. No one helped that child," she said, speaking of her younger self.

But Ruggia has rejected the claims.

He told the court he had in fact sought to protect Haenel from mockery in school over the sensitive scenes in The Devils.

This caused her to be outraged.

"Would you just shut up?" she shouted, banging her hands on the table in front of her.

Haenel marched out and only returned half an hour later with her lawyer, refusing to look at Ruggia.

In 2019, Haenel went public about the assaults, stunning the French film industry, which had been slower than Hollywood to react to the #MeToo movement.

Ruggia's former partner Mona Achache, 43, told the court about the filmmaker confessing to a single "unfortunate gesture" on one of the Saturday visits.

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