The Nanterre criminal court (Hauts-de-Seine) has rendered its decision. The president of the National Cinema Center (CNC) Dominique Boutonnat, tried for sexual assault on his godson, was sentenced this Friday to three years in prison, including one year, for sexual assault. He immediately announced that he was leaving his post, and that he plans to appeal this judgment.
This sentence goes beyond the demands of the prosecution, which had requested a three-year suspended prison sentence at the hearing on June 14. “We came very close to something that would have been criminal,” the prosecutor said at the time.
The powerful 54-year-old boss of the CNC, erected by some as a symbol of the impunity from which certain big names in the 7th art have long benefited, is accused by his godson, 19 years old at the time of the events, of having kissed him by force. and sexually assaulted during a stay in Greece in August 2020.
“Consensual” kisses
In court, the young man described Dominique Boutonnat, with whom he is not related, as “more than a godfather”, coming three to four times a week to his parents’ home. According to him, during a stay in his godfather’s country house, the latter tried to masturbate him after they had bathed naked in a swimming pool. The young man said he then masturbated him so he would stop touching him.
At the bar, the president of the CNC denied any sexual assault. He admitted to having taken a photo of the naked young man leaving the swimming pool, but assured that he was aiming at the landscape. He also conceded kisses, but according to him consented and initiated by his godson, admitting to having “screwed up” afterwards.
Dominique Boutonnat, who reaffirms his “innocence”, has decided to appeal this judgment, we read in a message sent to CNC agents. Deciding “to cease the exercise” of his “functions as of today”, he “warned” Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, who entrusted “the interim presidency of the CNC to his current Deputy Managing Director, Olivier Henrard”.
Validation of this appointment must be made by the President of the Republic at the next Council of Ministers. But the agenda risks being shaken up due to the legislative elections, where the National Rally is leading the polls, and could therefore place a member of its camp at the Ministry of Culture… Which would allow a personality to far right to arrive at the helm of the CNC, a prospect which worries the sector.
Despite his indictment in February 2021, Dominique Boutonnat was reappointed by the executive as head of the CNC in July 2022. The CGT-spectacle union called for his resignation and the 50/50 collective, which campaigns for equality, parity and diversity in the film and audiovisual industry, deplored his reappointment.
The actress Judith Godrèche, who is committed to protecting children and combating sexual violence, had for her part asked the Senate for the CNC boss to step down.