The Versailles Court of Appeal acquitted on Friday July 3 the former president of the National Center for Cinema and Animated Images (CNC) Dominique Boutonnat, tried for having sexually assaulted his godson in Greece in August 2020. Dominique Boutonnat, 56, was sentenced at first instance to one year in prison by the Nanterre judicial court.
“The guilt of the acts of sexual assault alleged against Dominique Boutonnat is not established,” justified the president of the court of appeal, detailing at length the contradictions in the statements of the complainant. “Consequently, he is acquitted of all the facts of the prevention,” she added.
Black jacket, blue shirt and dark gray pants, Dominique Boutonnat was present during the deliberations. His godson, however, was absent. The public prosecutor’s office had requested three years in prison against him, one of which was closed, i.e. the same sentence as in the first instance, highlighting his “stance of denial”.
During the hearing on May 4, as in first instance, Dominique Boutonnat contested the facts with which he is accused, while claiming to now better understand the “real suffering” of his godson. The victim, 21 years old at the time of the facts, accuses him of having tried to masturbate him in his bed after they bathed naked in a swimming pool during vacation in Greece in August 2020, in Dominique Boutonnat’s country house. The young man claims to have then masturbated in his room so that he would stop touching him.
Powerful figure of cinema
During his appeal trial, the former president of the CNC again admitted to having taken a naked photo of him leaving the swimming pool but while he was aiming at the landscape; and kisses in the latter’s room, but consented to and initiated by his godson, always according to his statements.
Finally, the next day, both parties agree on the fact that Dominique Boutonnat entered his godson’s bathroom to kiss him, this time according to Dominique Boutonnat in an attempt to remove the ambiguity about the facts of the previous night.
Dominique Boutonnat, who was one of the most powerful figures in French cinema, headed the CNC from 2019 to 2024, a structure responsible in particular for managing the prevention of sexual violence in the film industry. He resigned from his position after his conviction at first instance in June 2024.
“Dominique Boutonnat has been cleared of all the charges,” reacted in a press release sent by his lawyers, Maîtres Céline Lasek and Delphine Meillet.
“At the end of a long six-year procedure and a decision by three magistrates of the Versailles Court of Appeal that was extremely motivated in law and in fact, we are delighted that justice has finally been done,” they added, specifying that their client did not wish to make any further comment. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Maître Caroline Toby, did not wish to react.
