Lawsuit accuses Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis of rape.

LOS ANGELES •Acivillawsuit charging Canadian Paul Haggis with raping a publicist has prompted three additional women to come forward with their own sexual misconduct accusations against the Oscar-winning filmmaker, including another publicist who says he forced her to perform oral sex, then raped her.

One of the other women speaking out told The Associated Press that Haggis, a native of London, Ont., tried to sexually assault her. “I need to be inside you,” she recalled him saying, before she managed to run away.

Another of the new accusers said Haggis held down her arms, forcibly kissed her on a street corner, then followed her into a taxi.

When asked, Christine Lepera, attorney for the 64-year-old screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby and Crash, said, “He didn’t rape anybody.”

Haggis has denied the original rape allegation in a counter-complaint to the lawsuit, and said the accuser and her lawyer had demanded a US$9 million payment to avoid legal action, which he characterized as extortion.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, filed Dec. 15 in Manhattan, is identified in court papers as Haleigh Breest. The other three women subsequently came forward to Breest’s New York attorneys.

In separate interviews with the AP, the three provided detailed accounts of encounters they say occurred between 1996 and 2015. They all said Haggis first tried to kiss them. In two of the cases, they said, when they fought back, Haggis escalated his aggression.