French actor Delon’s son gets five months for accidental shooting

French veteran actor Alain Delon’s son was on Wednesday slapped with a five-month suspended sentence after the accidental shooting of a teenage girl at the actor’s Geneva apartment in 2011, Swiss media reported.

Geneva’s juvenile court, which heard the case Wednesday behind closed doors, found 19-year-old Alain-Fabien Delon guilty of negligently causing serious bodily harm, but acquitted him of endangering life, the Tribune de Geneve and 20Minutes reported on their websites.

The young man’s lawyer Alec Reymond hailed the ruling as “balanced”, stressing that the court had deemed the June 30, 2011 shooting an accident.

The court itself would not comment on the case, as those involved were all minors at the time.

On the evening of the accident, the then 17-year-old Delon was hosting a home-alone party at his father’s Geneva apartment.

He and another boy had fought over a gun, when a shot suddenly went off, seriously injuring a 16-year-old girl in the stomach.

Upon leaving the courthouse Wednesday, Reymond said his client felt “relief” at the verdict.

The young Delon, who was accompanied by his mother Rosalie van Breemen at Wednesday’s hearing, urgently needed “to turn this page that is haunting him”, the lawyer was quoted as saying by the Tribune de Geneve.

He stressed the importance of wrapping up the case, “which is weighing heavily on the hearts of all of these young people”.

Alain Delon, 78, who became a Swiss citizen in 1999, also has a 22-year-old daughter named Anouschka with van Breemen.

He also has a 49-year-old son, Anthony, with his once wife Nathalie Barthelemy.