LEAD: Perfume maker Guerlain regrets "nigger" remarks at trial

Feb 9, 2012, 16:24 GMT

Paris - Elderly French perfume maker Jean-Paul Guerlain told his French trial for racial insults Thursday he was 'anything but racist' and that his 2010 remarks in a television interview about 'niggers' were made in a moment of 'stupidity.'

The 75-year-old descendant of Guerlain's founder and one of France's most famous 'noses', is on trial over remarks he made during an interview with state television on October 15.

Describing the work that went into the creation of one of his famous scents, Guerlain said: 'I worked like a nigger', adding 'I don't know if niggers have always worked like that, but anyway.'

The remarks caused scandal and led some black activists call for a boycott of Guerlain products.

Dressed in an immaculate light-brown three-piece suit and supporting himself on crutches, Guerlain told the court he 'deeply regretted' the remarks and apologized to the black community for his 'stupidity.'

His first remark, he said, was a phrase he had heard all his youth working in his grandfather's garden, he said. 'I'm from another generation,' he explained.

His second remark, questioning the work ethic of black people, was a 'stupidity' aimed at making his younger female interviewer laugh. 'I regret it,' he said.

'I'm anything but racist,' Guerlain insisted, recalling how black US soldiers serving with the force that liberated Paris from Nazi German occupation in 1944, had introduced him to chewing gum and Coca-Cola.

As an adult, he had spent half his time travelling in West Africa to find ingredients for his perfumes, he said.

Guerlain had already apologised for the remarks in 2010 but several anti-racism associations pushed for him to be charged, saying the remark was reminiscent of the colonial era.

Many also remarked on his ease in using the racial slur on national television and questioned what that said about France's attitudes towards black people.

Guerlain, the company, which was founded in 1828 by Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain and is now owned by luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, also condemned the remarks.

Guerlain had retired from the company in 2002 but was still acting as a consultant on perfume development at the time of the interview. The perfume house promptly severed ties with its former creator.

The maximum sentence for racial slurs is six months in prison and 22,500 euros (30,000 dollars) in fines.

The trial was set to conclude later Thursday. A separate hearing will be scheduled for the verdict.