French cinema icon Gérard Depardieu found guilty in sexual assault trial

French film star Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty of sexual assaulting two women on a film set at a trial in Paris and given a suspended jail term of 18 months, the BBC reports.

The 76-year-old actor was accused by the two women of groping them during work on a film in 2021. Depardieu had denied the allegations against him and his lawyer said he would appeal, according to the BBC.

The court in Paris found that one of the women, a set designer named Amélie, had given consistent evidence while the actor's accounts had changed over time. She told reporters afterwards she was "very moved" and satisfied with the verdict, which for her was "a victory, a major step forward,” according to the BBC.

Depardieu has also been convicted of assaulting an assistant director, called Sarah.

The actor was not in court to hear the verdict but was instead working on a film set in the Azores.

Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, the lawyer acting for the two women, said she hoped the verdict marked the end of impunity for an artist in the film industry.

"It's a victory for two women on a film set but it's a victory for all the women behind this case and I'm thinking of all of Depardieu's other victims," she told reporters.

The lawyer also noted the case had come to an end hours before the Cannes film festival was due to start.

Handing down the suspended jail term, the judge also placed Depardieu on a list of sex offenders and ordered him to pay compensation of €1,000 (£840) each to Amélie and Sarah for "secondary victimisation", a recent innovation covering the additional suffering for the women from the trial itself.

Depardieu's lawyer Jérémie Assous had accused the women of lying during their evidence.

The alleged assaults took place in September 2021 when Depardieu was making a film called Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) about an ageing actor coming to terms with his declining powers.

This was Depardieu's first trial on sexual assault charges.