A preliminary investigation targeting the actor and director Philippe Caubère for “sexual assault on a minor over 15 years old by a person in authority” has been opened, the Créteil public prosecutor’s office said on Monday, confirming information from Franceinfo. Asked by AFP, the prosecution “confirmed” the opening of this investigation, without “further comment as it stands”.
According to Franceinfo, a young actress filed a complaint against the director and actor, accusing him of “sexual abuse” in 2012 when she was 16 and he was 61. Contacted by AFP, Mr. Caubère’s lawyer, Me Marie Dosé, declared that her client “acknowledges having maintained an intimate relationship with [the complainant] while she was a minor.” On the other hand, he denies any “anal or vaginal penetration”. According to the actor, the sexual relations were consensual.
Contacted in 2018 by the police services, the young woman did not wish to file a complaint for these facts on that date, noted Me Dosé. The lawyer linked “the sudden media coverage of this complaint” to her client’s recent support for actor Gérard Depardieu, indicted for rape. This complaint is “the result of a long period of reflection”, replied Me Negar Haeri, counsel for the young woman, stressing that “we need time when we are initially a minor of 16 years to understand what is happened and dare to file a complaint. Me Haeri brushed aside the question of consent or that relating to the nature of the sexual acts denounced, his client having filed a complaint for “sexual offense against a minor and not for rape or sexual assault”. “My client hopes that the investigation will continue as quickly as possible,” concluded Me Haeri.
According to the two lawyers, Philippe Caubère was not heard at this stage. A figure in the theater scene, the actor, now 73 years old, had already been the subject of a rape complaint dismissed in 2019. His accuser at the time had denounced in March 2018 acts of rapes committed eight years earlier, in 2010, on his person by the director. The Créteil public prosecutor’s office closed the proceedings, as there was “no element” allowing “to corroborate the complainant’s statements on the absence of consent”. This complainant was convicted in September 2021 for defamation, a conviction including the payment of 1000 euros “in compensation for the moral damage” of the artist.
