Paris police are investigating the apparent suicide this month of an actress who was one of the first to go public with claims of sexual assault against Gérard Depardieu, the disgraced film star, reports The Times.
Prosecutors opened an inquiry to determine the circumstances of the death on December 6 of Emmanuelle Debever, 60, several days after she had been revived following an apparent jump from a bridge into the Seine.
Her death came a day before the broadcast that day of an explosive France Television documentary, The Fall of the Ogre, which featured video of Depardieu, 74, the target of multiple claims of sexual assault, engaging in lewd, sexist behaviour.
The prosecutors made a connection with Debever when social media recalled that in 2019 she had made claims against the actor in a Facebook post recalling her time with him in the 1982 film Danton, on the hero of the French revolution.
The prosecutor’s office said: “In light of the fact that the actress had complained about sexual misconduct by Gerard Depardieu, notably in a Facebook post in 2019, an inquiry into the causes of death was opened. This inquiry will gather and verify the elements cited by the media and search the circumstances that may have led to this death.”