PARIS—A French court has sentenced Nicolas Bedos, a well-known director and actor, to one year in prison for sexually assaulting two women at a nightclub in Paris. Bedos must serve six months in prison and undergo mandatory treatment as part of his sentence.
The 45-year-old was found guilty of two incidents that occurred in mid-2023. In the first case, Bedos allegedly touched a 25-year-old woman inappropriately at a club on June 1st. A second woman, a waitress at the same club, said Bedos forcibly kissed her neck in May while intoxicated.
At his trial in September, Bedos said he could not remember the June incident due to heavy drinking. While acknowledging struggles with alcohol abuse, for which he claimed to be seeking help for two years, Bedos denied being a sexual predator. “I will never be a sexual aggressor,” he told the court. “We can talk about heaviness, we can talk about flirting… but there is no sexual intention.”
The court cleared Bedos of a third accusation from 2018, where a woman alleged he followed her to the bathroom at a party and spat on her after she rejected his advances.
Bedos’ lawyer, Julia Monkowski, plans to appeal the conviction. She described the legal process as an “unprecedented lynching.” The ruling could impact Bedos’ career as a prominent filmmaker. His most recent movie premiered in competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
The case also led more women to report past accusations against Bedos from the 1990s. While these claims were investigated, prosecutors dismissed them due to France’s statute of limitations on sexual violence cases. Under French law, sentences under two years will be reviewed to determine if prison time or alternatives like house arrest are most appropriate.
