Third woman accuses Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski of sexual attack

Mumbai: The trouble does not seem to get over for the veteran Hollywood director Roman Polanski, as a third woman has come forward to accuse Oscar-winning director of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor forty years ago in the 1970s.

According to The Independent, the woman identified only as Robin, said in a news conference that she had been ‘sexually victimized’ by Polanski in 1973, when she was just 16. She is the third woman to accuse him of child abuse.

Reading from a prepared statement, she said she had told a friend about the assault on the day after it happened.

“The reason, with this exception, that I kept it to myself is that I didn’t want my father to do something that might cause him to go to prison for the rest of his life,” she added.

She further noted that her decision to come forward after such a long years was because she was ‘infuriated’ that a statutory rape case against Polanski was dropped after his victim asked a Los Angeles court to end it.

In 1978, ‘The Pianist’ director fled to US after admitting statutory rape of Samantha Geimer who was 13 at that time.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, asked a Los Angeles court in June to end the case against him. Geimer said she had forgiven the filmmaker for the assault and wanted closure for herself and her family.

Robin, who appeared with her lawyer Gloria Allred in Los Angeles on Tuesday, cannot sue Polanski in a criminal court because the statute of limitation has passed.

The Oscar-winning director, who is a citizen of Poland and of France, has been a fugitive since.

In 2010, British actress Charlotte Lewis accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her in Paris in 1983, when she was 16 years old.

The actress was also represented by lawyer Gloria Allred.