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Roman Polanski Victorious in British Rape Accuser’s Defamation Case

The 90-year-old director had said in an interview that Charlotte Lewis lied about an alleged assault.

A court in Paris ruled Tuesday that Roman Polanski did not defame a British actress who accused him of raping her when she was 16.

The case was connected to a 2019 interview with magazine Paris Match in which the director, now 90, said Charlotte Lewis had lied about the alleged sexual assault. Lewis, 56, first made her allegations public in 2010, saying she’d been sexually abused by Polanski “in the worst possible way” in 1983 during a casting session for his film Pirates.

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The ruling Tuesday did not rule on the truth of the rape allegation but instead solely concerned whether Polanski’s comments in the interview constituted defamation, according to the Associated Press. He had denied the charges.

Polanski, who fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, did not attend the defamation trial stemming from Lewis’ complaint.

His lawyer, Delphine Meillet, noted the ruling coincided with the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, describing it as “a symbolic day.” “It’s a victory for the rights of the defense,” she added.

Lewis reportedly broke down at the courthouse after the verdict, telling reporters that she would appeal. “I feel sad,” she said. “For us, it’s not over.”

In March, Lewis told the court that her life had been “nearly destroyed” by a smear campaign running against her ever since she first went public with her story.

She also spoke to Le Parisien before the trial began about how the alleged defamation had made her “suffer every day for fourteen years” and said she’d developed “post-traumatic stress disorder, had a nervous breakdown and was blacklisted as an actress.”

In his 2019 interview with Paris Match, Polanski said Lewis’ rape claim was a “heinous lie” and cited a quote from a 1999 article from a defunct British tabloid, the News of the World, which quoted her as saying, “I was fascinated by him, and I wanted to be his lover,” according to the BBC.

Lewis disputed the accuracy of the quotes attributed to her in the piece.