Trial date for Galliano to be decided in May

THE trial date for John Galliano, the former chief executive of Dior, will be revealed in France on May 12.

The date will be set by a Paris court and the trial could take place before the summer.

Prosecutors have charged the Gibraltar-born, London-raised couturier with making racist and anti-Semitic remarks. It is a crime that, in France, is punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of €22,500.

The court will examine two complaints. The first was filed by a couple that claimed they were subjected to a drunken, anti-Semitic tirade from Galliano in a Paris café in late February.

The second complaint comes from a 48-year-old woman who accused the British designer of making racist remarks in October 2010.

Galliano, 50, one of the most influential designers of his generation, was fired earlier this month by Dior over the complaint made by the couple and a subsequent mobile phone video showing him, apparently drunk at the same café, saying: “I love Hitler.”

The British designer had already been suspended by Dior in late February after he was arrested and questioned by French police over his alleged anti-Semitic tirade in the café.

Through his lawyers, Galliano apologised “unreservedly” for his behaviour, but denied “the claims made against me”, as he reportedly checked into a rehab clinic in Arizona pending his court appearance.