A French film director has been taken into custody after being accused of sexual abuse and grooming by an actress he was in a romantic relationship with when she was 14 years old. 

Benoît Jacquot, 77, was being questioned by the Paris branch of France’s Brigade for the Protection of Minors along with fellow director Jacques Doillon, 80, local media reported.

The actress Judith Godrèche filed official complaints of sexual abuse against the two men earlier this year.

The 52-year-old actress claimed Mr Jacquot groomed her in the late 1980s, when he cast her in his 1987 film The Beggars and the pair became a couple. At the time she said she was 14 and he was 39. She has described the relationship as one of “control” and “perversion”. She made an official complaint against him for rape with constraint. 

Ms Godrèche also accused Mr Doillon of sexually assaulting her twice, and demanding she perform 45 takes of an unscripted sex scene with him when she was 15 during the shooting of his 1989 film The 15 Year Old Girl. She made a formal complaint against him for rape with violence.