Fallen designer says he has no memory of using anti-Semitic slurs

PARIS - Fashion designer John Galliano will learn in less than two weeks the outcome of his day-long trial on charges of hurling racist and anti-Semitic remarks at patrons in a Paris bar.

After seven hours of hearings - at which the 50-year-old couturier blamed his conduct on a crippling addiction to drugs and alcohol - a criminal court in the French capital set Sept 8 for his sentencing.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the furore broke in February, Galliano said he had no recollection of the incidents that cost him his highly coveted job as creative director at the Christian Dior fashion house.

"They are not views that I hold or believe in," he said after the court viewed an amateur video in which he declared a love for Hitler to shocked patrons at La Perle in the Le Marais, the old Jewish quarter of Paris.

"In the video, I see someone who needs help, who is very vulnerable. It is a shell of John Galliano, pushed to the edge," said the Gibraltar-born and London-bred designer who repeatedly denied he was anti-Semitic or racist.

He told the court he suffered from a triple addiction to alcohol, valium and sleeping pills, and that he checked into rehab in Arizona and Switzerland after his downfall at Dior. Today, he added, "I am in day care".

Widely regarded as one of the finest fashion designers of his generation, Galliano faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a fine of 22,500 euros ($32,000) if convicted of making anti-Semitic insults.

Anne de Fontette, prosecutor in the case, asked the court on Wednesday to fine Galliano no fewer than 10,000 euros, but made no mention of prison time at the conclusion of a long day in a hot and stuffy court chamber.

"I apologize very much," said Galliano in a soft voice when asked by Anne-Marie Sauteraud, the presiding judge, if he wanted to apologize. "I apologize for the sadness this whole affair has caused.

"I embrace every people, every race, creed, religion, sexuality."

Galliano said that he experienced bigotry first hand after he had moved to south London in the 1960s with his family at the age of six, enduring bullying because of his homosexuality.

He said he began abusing drugs and alcohol in 2007 following the death of Steven Robinson, his closest friend and right-hand man at both Dior and his own John Galliano label.

"After every creative high, I would crash, and alcohol helped me escape," he said, adding later: "I'm much better now."

Dressed soberly in a black jacket, matching loose silk trousers, but without his signature hat, Galliano was accompanied by his lawyer Aurelien Hamelle, and a burly, bald-headed bodyguard who sat two rows behind him.

An interpreter whispered into his left ear as Sauteraud, with a docket 20 centimeters high at her side, read from a document that quoted Galliano using obscene and insulting phrases.

Asked by the prosecutor if she was sure Galliano had used the word "Jewish", his alleged target, museum curator Geraldine Bloch, replied confidently: "Yes, several times ... it was one of the most recurrent words."

She said Galliano had begun by mocking her "cheap boots", moved on to insult her figure and finally used anti-Semitic slurs and speaking in obscenities.

Agence France-Presse