Director Christophe Ruggia convicted of sexually assaulting actor Adèle Haenel when she was a minor

SheShe had wanted “justice for this child that no one protected”. The court listened to Adèle Haenel when, on February 3rd, it convicted film director Christophe Ruggia and sentenced him to four years' imprisonment, including two suspended and the other two years to be served wearing an electronic bracelet.

Closely following the recommendations of the public prosecutor, the Paris Criminal Court found the filmmaker guilty of sexually assaulting the actor when she was a minor. In its verdict it underlined how Christophe Ruggia had “taken advantage of the power” he had over the young actor, “as a result of the exclusive relationship” he had established during the filming of Les Diables (2002), in which Adèle Haenel played the lead role. At the time of the events, between 2001 and 2004, she was aged 12 to 15, and he was aged 36 to 39.

The court also banned the director from working with minors for five years, and ordered him to compensate the actor to the tune of 40,000 euros for pain and suffering and medical expenses, plus 10,000 euros for legal costs.

In delivering the verdict, the presiding judge emphasised the fact that, in the years before she spoke out to Mediapart in 2019, Adèle Haenel had confided in several close acquaintances. He also referred to accounts from people in Christophe Ruggia’s circle at the time.

As the ruling was announced, the 35-year-old actor, dressed in a grey suit and green shirt, remained impassive. She quickly left the courtroom to prolonged applause from the public, accompanied by her lawyers, Anouck Michelin and Yann Le Bras. She addressed her comments just to the “activists” present, telling them: “Thank you for being here to advance human rights, and thank you for your support.”

“We're not here to be satisfied or dissatisfied with this decision, nor to comment on the length of the sentence,” responded her lawyer, Anouck Michelin. She added: “We take note of the fact that the court has found Christophe Ruggia guilty of the charges against him. That was the crucial point, that was the fight. And that is what moves Adèle Haenel today - hearing the court say that she is the victim of Christophe Ruggia.”

Through her “deeply moving but above all genuine” testimony to Mediapart, the actor had “put her finger on a societal issue, on power, on patriarchy,” her lawyer said. Above all, she had “raised the question of whether victims could know justice.” Anouck Michelin added: “Today, we have something of an answer, and if we have to fight this case again on appeal, then we will.”

And there will indeed be an appeal hearing: Christophe Ruggia, who was also present for the verdict, immediately lodged an appeal with the court clerk. His lawyer, Fanny Colin, reiterated that her client “maintains that he never touched Adèle Haenel”. She stated: “Here, the law of the strongest, of the loudest voice, of the person with unconditional public support, has crushed the fundamental legal principle of the benefit of the doubt. The court’s decision leaves us with the bitter feeling that an injustice is preferable to disorder - the disorder that would undoubtedly have followed had Christophe Ruggia been acquitted.”

Outside the courthouse, and inside the courtroom itself, feminist activists and figures from the French #MeToo movement, including actor Judith Godrèche, had gathered in support of Adèle Haenel.

Two months earlier, at the end of a highly-charged trial, prosecutor Camille Poch had urged the court to sentence the filmmaker to two years in prison – a sentence that could be converted to the wearing of an electronic tagging – in order to “set the world right again, to reinforce the prohibition, and to remind everyone who was the child and who was the adult.” The remark was a reference to Adèle Haenel’s own words to Mediapart in 2019 when she said: “I'm speaking out not to bring Christophe down, but to set the world right again [...], to stop the abusers from swaggering around and to make them face the truth, to shift the shame onto the right people.”

A landmark case for #MeToo in France

It was as part of a Mediapart investigation that same year that Adèle Haenel had given a detailed account of the Saturday afternoons she spent at Christophe Ruggia’s home after the filming of Les Diables in the early 2000s. She described the white chocolate finger biscuits and Orangina he would always place on the small table in the living room; the conversations during which, according to her, he would “get out of hand”; the hands he slid “under my T-shirt”, “down my thigh towards my [vagina]”; and the kisses “on my neck”, which she tried to escape from by moving from the sofa to the armchair, then to the footstool, which was “so small he couldn’t come near me”.

Her account was backed by multiple testimonies, first gathered by Mediapart and then by the justice system itself. Members of the film crew spoke of the filmmaker’s “hold” over the young actor, while those close to her recalled their “unease” at the time and the teenager’s attempts to express herself over the years.

But it was two testimonies from people close to Christophe Ruggia at the time that carried particular weight. One of his former partners, director Mona Achache, reported the confessions the filmmaker allegedly made to her in 2011, notably about the “romantic feelings” he said he had had for the young actor. His sister, Véronique Ruggia, who had been his assistant during the filming of Les Diables, confirmed that she had questioned him after a conversation with Adèle Haenel, who had alluded to his behaviour a few years after the events.

Written evidence also supported the actor’s allegations. In 2014, she wrote an unsent letter to Christophe Ruggia in which she set out her accusations in detail and used the word “paedophilia”. In two letters he sent her in 2006 and 2007, he spoke of his “love for [her]” that had “at times been too heavy to bear”. Police investigations also uncovered a 2011 Google search on the filmmaker’s computer for “adèle haenel hot” (when the actor was 22) and a 2019 manuscript entitled Adèle Haenel M’a Tué ('Adèle Haenel killed me') in which he wrote: “Twelve-year-old Adèle was overflowing with sensuality.”

While Christophe Ruggia had acknowledged having a form of “influence” over the actor as a director and had admitted he had “made the mistake of playing Pygmalion”, he has always denied any sexual assault. He claimed that Haenel’s accusations stemmed from frustration over a film project that ultimately failed to materialise in 2004.

He expanded on this theory of revenge during the December court hearing, attacking what he called a “Stalinist trial” in which Mediapart had played the role of “prosecutor”. He declared: “Everyone has considered me guilty from the start! France needed a #MeToo case, and I was the one who got caught up in it! There was an agenda behind this.”

The prosecutor dismissed this as an “absurd defence”. Taking the stand, Adèle Haenel turned the focus back on to the issue of responsibility. “Who's the adult here? Who is supposed to set the boundaries?” and “Who was there to tell that child: ‘It’s not your fault’?” she asked.

The court’s decision had been eagerly awaited. This case had opened the door to France’s #MeToo movement, two years after it began in the United States. Haenel’s testimony to Mediapart had sent shockwaves through the film industry and more widely in society, finding resonance because of its universal dimension. The press unanimously hailed it as a “chilling one-hour cry” a “manifesto”, a “new and powerful voice” that “reignited the #MeToo movement” and marked an “historic moment”.

Over the next five years, Haenel became a leading figure for those speaking out against the impunity of sexual abusers, a symbol of resistance. In 2020, she walked out of the César Awards – France's equivalent of the Oscars - in outrage, shouting “Shame!” in protest at the three awards given to director Roman Polanski, who has been accused of rape by several teenage girls. In 2023, she turned her back on the film industry that had made her a star, condemning its complacency towards sexual and gender-based violence. In 2024, during the trial, she locked eyes with Christophe Ruggia, slamming her fist on the table when he attempted to take the credit for the new surname she had chosen as a young actor, and said: “Just shut the hell up!”

A justice system under fire

Monday's verdict was also awaited because of Haenel’s public criticism of the justice system in 2019. By choosing to speak to a media outlet rather than go to court, she had highlighted the failings of the judicial system in handling sexual violence complaints - more than two-thirds of which are dismissed without further action. To Mediapart she had explained that she never considered going to court because the justice system “so rarely convicts abusers”, adding a statement that left its mark: “Justice ignores us, so we ignore justice”.

Three days after Mediapart’s revelations, the Paris public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation. Adèle Haenel decided not to “shy away” and filed a complaint. “The justice system has taken a step, so I'm taking one,” she told Mediapart (see Adèle Haenel speaking to Mediapart's then publishing editor Edwy Plenel and Marine Turchi, in French, below).

The criminal justice system acted swiftly. Within two months, the investigation - led by a unit specialising in cases of child sexual abuse - resulted in Christophe Ruggia being taken into custody for 48 hours and subsequently being placed under investigation in connection with the sexual assault of a minor under the age of 15.

Throughout the proceedings, Haenel was acutely aware that time and resources had been dedicated to her case, with police officers and magistrates she saw as “competent”, “sensitive”, and “committed to their work” handling the investigation. But she was never under any illusion about what she saw as a “public relations exercise”. In a 2021 interview, she remarked: “I imagine the state wants to set an example and prove through my case that no, there's no problem with how the justice system handles sexual violence cases.” With a wry smile, she added: “It feels like the Soviet Union back in the day - I’m being shown the shop window, the best offices, the finest municipal gymnasium.”

Before long, Ruggia and his lawyers were complaining about the speed of the judicial process. In 2020, they successfully had his custody period declared invalid and overturned the requirement for him to undergo psychological treatment as part of his judicial supervision order.

Yet despite that procedural victory, the case file itself continued to grow. By August 2024, after five years of investigations, the investigating judge ruled that Ruggia should stand trial before a criminal court. She highlighted Adèle Haenel’s accusations as being “detailed, consistent, and precise”, noted her “state of shock” at the time, the “psychological impact” of the events, the “large age gap between the two individuals”, and the “gradual psychological coercion” exerted by the director. Seeing those words in black and white brought the actor a first sense of recognition. It also stirred a “great deal of emotion”, she told Mediapart.

During the trial, the presiding judge immediately pressed Adèle Haenel on why she had chosen to speak to the media instead of going to the authorities. Why had she not filed a complaint at the time? And had she considered the consequences for Christophe Ruggia?

It was a way for the judge to acknowledge the unease that the actor's public stance had caused in 2019. Her remarks had unsettled parts of the judicial world by exposing a justice system unable to handle such cases effectively. The question left her taken aback. No, she had not considered the consequences for the man she accused of abusing her as a child. “At that moment, I spoke out because staying silent was no longer an option,” said Adèle Haenel. “All I could think about was the unbearable, enforced silence.”

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• The original French version of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter