The legal problems of the film director Roman Polanski, who is currently under house arrest in his Swiss chateau awaiting extradition to the US charged with raping a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, thickened yesterday when a British actor claimed he had sexually abused her in the 1980s when she was 16 years old.
Charlotte Lewis, now 42, appeared at the office of her lawyer, Gloria Allred, in Los Angeles to put to reporters the allegation that Polanski had abused her "in the worst possible way" in Paris. She gave no details, and no evidence was provided to support the accusation.
But Allred said that her client wanted to present the allegations in order to show the US courts that the charges Polanski is currently facing – that he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson's house in LA in 1977 – were not isolated.
Lewis, who appeared in Polanski's film Pirates in 1986 – four years after the alleged assault was alleged to have taken place – read a statement at a news conference and refused to answer questions. "He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behaviour ever since it occurred. All I want is justice," she said.
LA police confirmed to Associated Press that Lewis had been interviewed by their department, though no formal investigation has yet begun.
Polanski, the director of such Hollywood classics as Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby, has been in legal limbo since September when a US warrant for his arrest was issued after he travelled to Switzerland to receive an award at a film festival. He faces charges that he gave Quaaludes and champagne to the 13-year-old in 1977 then raped her, having pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. But he fled before sentencing.
This week the LA judge who is hearing the Polanski case turned down a request from his lawyers to publish secret testimony in the case. The defence said that would show misconduct by the judge, now dead, who had handled the case.
Polanski's legal team said they were unaware of the allegations from Lewis.
Lewis also appeared in the 1986 movie The Golden Child and had small roles in other films and television shows.
Allred is known for taking on controversial cases. She recently represented Rachel Uchitel, one of the women involved with the golfer Tiger Woods.
At the Cannes film festival yesterday, the actor Michael Douglas said he would not sign a petition in support of Polanski – posted on a website overseen by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy – because Polanski "did break the law".