LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles prosecutors have met with a British actress who claims she was sexually abused by director Roman Polanski in Paris when she was 16.
Forty-two-year-old Charlotte Lewis, speaking at a news conference Friday in Los Angeles, says Polanski abused her while she was working on the film “Pirates” in 1982.
Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons acknowledges Lewis met with a prosecutor handling Polanski’s 33-year-old sex case involving another girl. Gibbons would not comment further.
Lewis’ attorney Gloria Allred says she hopes her client’s allegations will affect sentencing for Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland and is fighting extradition. He pleaded guilty in 1977 to having sex with a 13-year-old girl but fled to France.
from www.foxnews.com –
A British woman came forward Friday alleging sexual assault against director Roman Polanski, who is currently under house arrest in Switzerland for the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
In a press conference at her attorney Gloria Allredâs Los Angeles office, Charlotte Lewis, an actress who appeared in Polanskiâs 1986 film âPirates,â alleged that Polanski sexually abused her in the âworst way possibleâ when she was 16 years old. Lewis claims the attack took place in Paris in 1982, four years after he fled the U.S. to escape sentencing for the sexual assault of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer.
According to Lewis, now 42, Polanski was aware that she was 16 at the time when he âforced himselfâ on her in his apartment. The legal age of consent in France is 15.
SLIDESHOW: Polanksi Accuser Charlotte Lewis.
âHe took advantage of me,â Lewis said. âWhat I want is justice.â
Allred, who assisted her client in reporting the alleged attack to authorities Thursday, said Lewisâ claims, if found to be credible, can influence Polanskiâs sentencing. She declined to call the case a rape, saying the attack took place in the manner in which it was described.
âAccountability for a crime against a child has no time limit,â Allred said, arguing that he deserves no compassion for his age,or for the number of years that have passed.
Allred attributed Lewisâ 28-year-silence to a fear to come forward at the time of the attack, especially because of the high-profile nature of the case.
In addition to her work on âPirates,â Lewis also appeared in the Eddie Murphy filmâThe Golden Child.â She was also on the cover of Playboy magazine in 1993.
A call to Polanksiâs rep was not immediately returned Friday.
