Filmmakers Jacquot and Doillon in detention following allegations of sexual abuse

French directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon have been taken into police custody for questioning following accusations of historical sexual abuse, French media report.

Actress Judith Godrèche accuses Benoît Jacquot of raping her when she was a child and Jacques Doillon of sexually assaulting her, also when she was a child.

The two men arrived Monday morning at the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police (DRPJ) in Paris, reports the AFP news agency.

Both men denied the allegations and their lawyers denounced their detention.

Jacques Doillon’s lawyer, Marie Dose, declared that no legal criterion could justify his detention for interrogation “36 years” after the alleged facts.

According to French law, a person can be placed in police custody for up to 48 hours.

At the start of the year, Ms. Godrèche, 51, filed a complaint against Benoît Jacquot, 77, accusing him of rape in 1986, when she was 14 years old.

She claimed he had an unhealthy “control” over her during a relationship that lasted into the 1990s.

She also accused Jacques Doillon of sexual assault on set while she was starring in one of his films.

These accusations led to a joint investigation in February.

Reacting to the custody measure in a post on Instagram, she posted a photo of herself as a teenager alongside Benoît Jacquot, with the caption: “I’m crying… About all this… I don’t know if I I have the strength but I will have it. I will have it… For her.

At the start of her career, Judith Godrèche became known thanks to her roles in two films by Benoît Jacquot, Les Gueux (1987) and Les Désenchantées (1990).

Since the mid-1970s he has been making his drama Farewell, My Queen, which opened the Berlin International Film Festival in 2012.

Ms. Godrèche starred in Jacques Dillion’s 1989 film, The 15-Year-Old Girl, which premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival. Her more recent films include Rodin and Toi, Moi et Nous.

She went on to direct numerous other films, including The Overnight, The Spanish Apartment and The Man in the Iron Mask.