Gérard Depardieu hits out at ‘media court’ in first comments on rape claims

Letter in Le Figaro is first time Depardieu has personally commented after series of allegations. Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA

The French actor Gérard Depardieu has written for the first time about allegations of rape and sexual assault against him, saying in Le Figaro that he was the victim of a lynching orchestrated by a “media court”.

In an open letter written in a literary style, he wrote: “Never, ever have I abused a woman.”