ROME – Police in the southern Italian city of Brindisi say British woman accused of brutally raping Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis has injuries compatible with her charges. “I was raped for days,” the woman told investigating prosecutor Antonio Negro, according to a summary of the arrest document broadcast in The Daily Beast. “We were supposed to work together, but instead he raped me from Sunday evening to Wednesday.”
The woman, who Negro’s office says has a British passport, was dropped off last Wednesday before dawn by the director outside Brindisi airport in Puglia province, who sits at the heel of the boot of Italy, according to his testimony to the police. He says he did not have a plane ticket, but that he gave her money to buy one when the airport opened, according to prosecutors.
The prosecutor’s office says the woman was found hiding in a corner of the small airport by a flight attendant who immediately alerted authorities. “She was destroyed,” the manager told police, according to the initial investigation document. “He spoke with difficulty.”
After an initial medical examination at the airport’s health clinic, she was taken to hospital for treatment in accordance with Italy’s “pink protocol” for rape victims, which includes psychological counseling. . The prosecutor’s office says she “suffered repeated sexual assaults without consent,” including one so violent that she was “forced to seek medical attention.”
Apparently, this horrible event is what brought her to the end of her ordeal, when she says Haggis took her to the airport in the early hours of Wednesday. The coroner’s report says the violence left him unable to have sex.
Prosecutors say that after she became incapacitated, she drove her alone to the airport from the tourist resort of Ostuni, an hour away, where the 69-year-old man – who has been accused of sexual misconduct for four more women — he was the incumbent. the Allor Fest with Oliver Stone, Matt Dillon, Edward Norton and Marisa Tomei. The music and film festival immediately distanced itself from Haggis, canceling all events in which he was scheduled to participate.
Police then investigated the new allegations, examining camera footage outside Haggis’ hotel room and at the airport, which is said to be with him. They then waited until the woman left Italy safely to arrest the director on Sunday in Ostuni. By then his family had joined him. He is being held in the provincial capital, Brindisi, where he will face the Italian equivalent of an arrest on Monday or Tuesday.
Haggis’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, declined to comment on the case to The Hollywood Reporter, citing a non-existent “law” that says it is prohibited from commenting on ongoing cases. “That said, I’m sure all charges will be dismissed against Mr. Haggis,” Chaudhry said in an email on the network. “He is completely innocent and willing to cooperate fully with the authorities so that the truth will come out quickly.”
Haggis wrote two Oscars for Best Picture with Million Dollar Baby in 2014 and Crash in 2005. The latest incident is not the first time the Canadian director has legal issues. In 2017, publicist Haleigh Breest filed an ongoing civil lawsuit accusing her of violence against him. Three more women appeared a year later saying he had sexually abused them. He denies all charges.
Haggis, who left the Church of Scientology in 2009, has said the allegations of sexual abuse are simply retaliation by the church. His accusers deny this claim.