Paul Haggis accuser tells Italian police she was raped twice

The British citizen who has accused Canadian-born screenwriter and director Paul Haggis of raping her in Italy advised Italian police she was sexually assaulted twice by Haggis over a number of days, after becoming a member of him within the southern vacationer city of Ostuni, the place Haggis was headlining a movie pageant.

“The lady was subjected twice to non-consensual intercourse; she wasn’t raped for days on finish,” as some media have reported, stated Insp. Rita Sverdigliozzi, who heads up the unit of the Brindisi state police investigating the alleged crime.

“She admired him and got here to Ostuni hoping she may work with him.”

Haggis was arrested Sunday on fees of sexual assault and grievous bodily hurt. He’s at the moment below home arrest in Ostuni, Italy.

Sverdigliozzi confirmed the girl, 29, and Haggis, 69, met within the spring.

Italian media have reported particulars from a leaked memo that Haggis wrote up for his lawyer, the place he says the 2 met on the Monaco Worldwide Movie Pageant. After the girl took a selfie with Haggis, he allegedly contacted her over social media.

The lady advised police she left a love be aware “for a motive,” within the bed-and-breakfast room the 2 shared for a number of days.

In response to a press release from prosecutors, Haggis dropped the girl off on the airport in Brindisi, Italy, the closest metropolis to Ostuni, within the heel-shaped area of Puglia, early within the morning of June 15. There, airline employees discovered her wandering round in what the prosecutors describe as a “precarious psychological and bodily situation” and police have been alerted.

After reporting the alleged assault to the police, the girl stayed in a shelter for victims of sexual abuse in Puglia, which she left on Wednesday, police stated.

Authorities have additionally stated it may take weeks earlier than a trial begins.

Girl to recount alleged assault to guage

The lady is about to look subsequent week to recount the alleged assault in entrance of a decide in Brindisi.

Investigators are nonetheless gathering proof forward of a preliminary listening to, when a decide will resolve whether or not to proceed with a trial and whether or not to launch Haggis from home arrest — and, in that case, below what situations.

Vilma Gilli, the decide overseeing preliminary investigations, dominated Wednesday to maintain the director below home arrest, the place he’s solely allowed to see members of the family and his legal professionals.

Haggis is at the moment staying in a luxurious farmhouse exterior Ostuni, the place he moved after the arrival of his grownup youngsters, who have been scheduled to steer grasp courses at the Allora Movie Pageant that began this week.

The decide primarily based her resolution on the model of occasions recounted by the sufferer, which the decide stated demonstrated an “absolute incapability to manage [Haggis’s] instincts and to desist from inclinations of prevarication and dominance,” Italian media reported.

Accusations within the U.S.

The decide additionally cited a pending civil case involving a rape accusation towards Haggis in New York as serving to inform her resolution. 4 ladies within the U.S. have accused Haggis of sexual assault — claims he has denied.

The Oscar-winning screenwriter and director of Crash, who additionally co-wrote On line casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, appeared earlier than Gilli on Wednesday in Brindisi, Italy, the place, with the assistance of a translator, he advised the decide his model of occasions.

Michele Laforgia, Haggis’s Italian lawyer, stated his shopper is harmless and the sexual relations between Haggis and the girl have been consensual.

“We now have additionally made it clear that there are not any accidents or indicators of violence, which has been alleged by the prosecution,” Laforgia advised reporters after the listening to.