- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Mixed day for global stocks as market hopes for 'Santa Claus rally'
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
- Jordanian, Qatari envoys hold talks with Syria's new leader
- France's second woman premier makes surprise frontline return
- France's Macron announces fourth government of the year
- Netanyahu tells Israel parliament 'some progress' on Gaza hostage deal
- Guatemalan authorities recover minors taken by sect members
- Germany's far-right AfD holds march after Christmas market attack
- European, US markets wobble awaiting Santa rally
- Serie A basement club Monza fire coach Nesta
- Mozambique top court confirms ruling party disputed win
- Biden commutes almost all federal death sentences
- Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony
- NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun
- France's new government to be announced Monday evening: Elysee
- London toy 'shop' window where nothing is for sale
- Volkswagen boss hails cost-cutting deal but shares fall
- Accused killer of US insurance CEO pleads not guilty to 'terrorist' murder
- Global stock markets mostly higher
- Not for sale. Greenland shrugs off Trump's new push
- Sweden says China blocked prosecutors' probe of ship linked to cut cables
- Acid complicates search after deadly Brazil bridge collapse
- Norwegian Haugan dazzles in men's World Cup slalom win
- Arsenal's Saka out for 'many weeks' with hamstring injury
- Mali singer Traore child custody case postponed
- France mourns Mayotte victims amid uncertainy over government
- UK economy stagnant in third quarter in fresh setback
- Sweden says China denied request for prosecutors to probe ship linked to cut undersea cables
- African players in Europe: Salah leads Golden Boot race after brace
- Global stock markets edge higher as US inflation eases rate fears
- German far-right AfD to march in city hit by Christmas market attack
- Ireland centre Henshaw signs IRFU contract extension
- Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Hasina's family
- US probes China chip industry on 'anticompetitive' concerns
- Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Clock ticks down on France government nomination
- 'Devastated' Australian tennis star Purcell provisionally suspended for doping
- Mozambique on edge as judges rule on disputed election
- Mobile cinema brings Tunisians big screen experience
- Philippines says to acquire US Typhon missile system
'Shut up': 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.
The film contains sex scenes between the children and close-ups of Haenel's naked body.
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's grooming' -
"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 sex 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.
- 'Unfortunate gesture' -
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.
She said Ruggia told her he had been "madly in love" with the young actress.
"He told me they were watching a film on the sofa, she had rested her head on his lap, and his hand moved onto her breast," she said.
"It was a version of the story that highlighted his virtue in removing his hand."
The filmmaker had also said something to his sister.
"I got the impression he felt guilty," Veronique Ruggia said.
In 2020, Haenel stormed out of the industry's Cesars award ceremony in protest against a prize awarded to veteran director Roman Polanski, who is wanted in the United States for statutory rape.
Last year, she quit cinema over what she called the French film industry turning a blind eye towards sexual abusers.
Several other allegations have rocked the film sector over the past few years.
Cinema legend Gerard Depardieu, 75, is to stand trial in March accused of sexually assaulting two women. He denies the accusations.
Actor Judith Godreche said this year two French directors -- Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon -- had both sexually abused her when she was a teenager. Both deny the charges.
D.Kaufman--AMWN