French film star Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty of sexual assaulting two women on a film set at a trial in Paris and given a suspended jail term of 18 months.

Axar.az reports, citing BBC, the 76-year-old actor was accused by the two women of groping them during work on a film in 2021. Depardieu had denied the allegations against him and his lawyer said he would appeal.

The court in Paris found that one of the women, a set designer named Amélie, had given consistent evidence while the actor's accounts had changed over time.

She told reporters afterwards she was "very moved" and satisfied with the verdict, which for her was "a victory, a major step forward".

Depardieu was also convicted of assaulting an assistant director, called Sarah.

The actor was not in court to hear the verdict but was instead working on a film set in the Azores.

The judge placed Depardieu on a list of sex offenders and ordered him to pay compensation of €1,000 (£840) each to Amélie and Sarah for "secondary victimisation", a recent innovation covering the additional suffering for the women from the trial itself.

The alleged assaults took place in September 2021 when Depardieu was making a film called Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) about an ageing actor coming to terms with his declining powers.

The first plaintiff - 54-year-old set decorator Amélie - told the court that after a minor argument with Depardieu, he caught her between his legs and held her by the hips.

The second woman - the film's assistant director Sarah who is 34 - said the actor had touched her buttocks and breasts through her clothes on three separate occasions. Sarah is not her real name and she was not in court to hear the verdict.

Depardieu denied the allegations, saying only that he might have touched the women accidentally or to keep his balance.

At the end of the hearings, Depardieu said: "My name has been dragged through the mud by lies and insults.

"A trial can be a very special experience for an actor. Seeing all this anger, the police, the press. It's like being in a science fiction film, except it's not science fiction. It's life."