PARIS - A French court handed out a 6,000 euro ($8,421) suspended fine to John Galliano on Thursday after finding him guilty of anti-Semitic behavior , marking the end in a fall from grace for the former head designer of fashion house Dior.
For Galliano, whose worth is estimated in the millions of dollars, the penalty -- suspended for several years -- avoids any financial burden and is unlikely to constrain his liberty.
RELATED:Prosecutors call for fine for GallianoGalliano tells court he lost it on booze, drugsThe fine, in line with what a prosecutor had recommended in June, falls short of the maximum sentence in such cases of a 22,000 euro fine and 6-month prison sentence.
"Despite the triple addiction from which he was suffering, he was lucid
enough to be conscious of his acts," said the tribunal president,
Anne-Marie Sauteraud, reading out the court's decision.
The court explained its relatively lenient decision by referring to
Galliano's lack of criminal convictions, his previous regard for respect
and tolerance and the treatment for drug and alcohol addiction he has
sought since his arrest.
She said Galliano had told the court he would have wanted to be present
for the verdict, but did not attend to avoid another confrontation with
the press.
In addition to the fines, Galliano was sentenced to pay more than 5,000
euros in legal fees, plus 1 euro in symbolic damages, to each of the
plaintiffs and civil parties in the case.
Yet the British designer has already paid for his behavior late last
year at a chic Parisian bar -- where he was filmed hurling anti-Semitic
insults at a couple -- by losing his top job at Dior and his stake in a
franchise named after him.
The damage to his reputation, once among the untouchable in the world of
high fashion, has also been dire, with peers ranging from Chanel
designer Karl Lagerfeld and US actress Natalie Portman blasting his behavior in public.
Galliano, reported to have been through two rehabilitation programs,
in Arizona and Switzerland, has made few public appearances since he
appeared before a packed Parisian courthouse last June, speaking in a
tiny voice about his triple addiction to alcohol, sleeping pills and
tranquilizers.
The image of a man who, in his own words, had become a "ghost of
himself" was enough to appease at least one plaintiff in the case,
Geraldine Bloch, her lawyer told Reuters.
"She saw a man who was destroyed physically, a sick man," said lawyer
Yves Beddouk. "For her and for me, this is already in the past, he has
already been stripped of his status as an icon and that is the real
punishment."
"The court's verdict will serve as an example," he added.