LOS ANGELES – An English actress who appeared in Roman Polanski's 1986 movie Piratessaid yesterday that the director sexually abused her decades ago in Paris when she was 16.
Charlotte Lewis made her claim as US authorities pressed for Polanski’s extradition from Switzerland to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
“Mr Polanski knew that I was only 16 years old when he met me and forced himself upon me in his apartment in Paris,” Lewis said in prepared remarks at a news conference in Los Angeles. “He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behaviour ever since it occurred,” she said.
Lewis and her celebrity lawyer, Gloria Allred, declined to give details and no lawsuit has been filed. Lewis said she had come forward now with the aim of bolstering the case against the Oscar-winning director of “The Pianist”.
Polanski (76) was arrested in Switzerland in September last year and is being detained at his home there. He fled California in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor but before being formally sentenced.
The Los Angeles district attorney’s office said Lewis met the lead prosecutor in the Polanski case on Thursday, but declined further comment.
Lewis's other film's include 1986's The Golden Childand roles in the little-known 2003 films, Henry Xand Hey DJ. – (Reuters)