(NewsWorthy.news) – Filmmaker Roman Polanski is on trial in France over defamation allegations against the director. The 90-year-old Franco-Polish director is accused of defaming a British actress who accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s.
Polanski, who is not expected to appear in court according to his lawyers, was accused of sexually assaulting Charlotte Lewis, 58, in the “worst possible way” when she was 16. The alleged incident occurred in Paris in 1983 after she traveled for casting. The actress was in Polanski’s 1986 film Pirates. The director of Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and the Pianist fled to Europe in 1978 in the wake of sexual assault allegations. He is still wanted in the United States over the 1977 rape of a 13-year-old girl.
Polanski denies the allegations and faces several other sexual assault claims that stretch back decades and past the statute of limitations. In 2017 he faced a third claim he sexually abused a child. The woman, referred to only as Robin, claimed Polanski molested her when she was 16. Robin was unable to sue the director because of the statute of limitations but was in a position to testify concerning the 1977 alleged rape of Samantha Geimer. Geimer asked a Los Angeles Court to end the case in 2017 and claimed that the media “circus” around the incident had traumatized her more than the incident itself. Having admitted to statutory rape Polanski served 42 days in prison for the 1977 incident, which took place at Jack Nicholson’s home when the actor was absent. He fled the country over concerns his plea bargain deal would be scrapped.
In 2019 Polanski referred to the alleged assault of Lewis in 1983 as a “heinous lie” in an interview with Paris Match magazine. Lewis’ lawyer, Benjamin Chouai, praised his client for “bravely calling out” the Polanski system of defaming and discrediting his alleged victims. Stuart White, who wrote the News of the World article on Lewis’ claims in 1999, has been summoned by Polanski’s lawyer to appear as a witness at the trial. With a history of fabricating quotes and phone-hacking, News of the World was forced to close in 2011. Lewis claimed that the interview she gave was not what ended up in print, that she had a nervous breakdown and had to move her then 6-year-old son to a different school after she spoke out in 2010.
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