The president of the National Cinema Center (CNC) Dominique Boutonnat will be tried in June for sexual assault on his godson, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office told AFP on Wednesday, confirming information from the L’Informe website.
“I confirm to you that the planned date for this trial is currently set for June 14, 2024,” said the public prosecutor, while this case came back to the forefront when actress Judith Godrèche asked on Thursday before the Senate the “withdrawal” of Mr. Boutonnat.
Dominique Boutonnat, who vigorously contests the alleged facts, was accused in October 2020 by his godson of acts dating back to August 2020, when the latter was 21 years old. In the complaint consulted by AFP, the young man accuses his godfather, with whom he has no family connection, of having tried to “masturbate” him on the night of August 3, 2020, after having bathed naked in the swimming pool. “I masturbate him so that he stops touching me,” he denounces, assuring that his godfather then tried to force him to perform oral sex.
From the beginning, the president of the CNC has spoken of “consensual kisses”, “gestures of affection which he stopped when he felt from his godson that this gesture could have degenerated into something else”, had affirmed in 2022 his lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny.
Judith Godrèche, who campaigns for the protection of children against sexual violence, particularly in the French cinema sector, requested during a hearing in the Senate “the withdrawal” of Mr. Boutonnat from his functions.
Questioned by AFP, neither the CNC nor Mr. Boutonnat’s lawyer wished to react.