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French film director faces charges of sexual harassment of child actor Adèle Haenel

Haenel says Christophe Ruggia subjected her to ‘permanent sexual harassment’ during making of film when she was between 12 and 15

A group of feminists gathered outside the Paris court on Monday to support Haenel who claims she was groomed and abused from the age of 12 to 15 by Christophe Ruggia. Haenel, 30, who has won two Césars, the French equivalent of an Oscar, claims Ruggia, 59, subjected her to “permanent sexual harassment” during and after the making of his 2002 movie, The Devils, in which she played a girl with autism. Asked what had prompted him to write a screenplay about the sexual awakening of two teenagers, Ruggia told the court: “It was the story of my two best friends who grew up in care.”

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