Oscar-winning director faces charges in sex case in Italy
ROME — Film director Paul Haggis was being held in a hotel room in southern Italy on Monday pending a court hearing while prosecutors press their investigation of a woman’s allegations he had sex with her without her consent over the course of two days.
Prosecutors in Brindisi, a port town in Puglia, the region that forms the “heel” of southeastern Italy, said that police had detained the Canadian-born director, screenwriter and producer for investigation of alleged aggravated sexual violence and aggravated personal injuries.
They described the alleged victim as a “young foreign woman.”
State TV and other Italian media said she is a 30-yearold Englishwoman who had known Haggis, 69, before he came to the tourist town of Ostuni to participate in an arts festival that begins today. They said he is being detained in a hotel room in that town.
Haggis’ Italian lawyer was in court Monday morning on other matters and couldn’t be reached for comment.
On Sunday, Haggis’ U.s.-based attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said that although she could not discuss the evidence under Italian law, “I am confident that all allegations will be dismissed against Mr. Haggis. He is totally innocent, and willing to fully cooperate with the authorities so the truth comes out quickly.”
Brindisi Prosecutor Antonio Negro said that the exact date of the hearing this week is still to be decided.
Under Italian law a judge, after hearing arguments from both prosecutors and defense lawyers, will rule on whether Haggis can be set free pending possible additional investigation. A judge can also decide if there is a flight risk, or the possibility of tampering with evidence or committing the same alleged crime and order him to be jailed or stay under house arrest.
Prosecutors said that “according to (investigative) elements gathered, Haggis allegedly “forced the young woman, known by him from some time ago, to submit to sexual relations.”
They also said that the woman was “forced to seek medical care,” The prosecutors added that after a couple of days of non-consensual relations, the woman was accompanied” by Haggis to Brindisi airport and “was left there at dawn despite (her) precarious physical and psychological conditions.”
Airport staff and police noticed her “obvious confused state” and took her to police headquarters, where officers accompanied her to a local hospital for examination.
Haggis won an Oscar in 2006 for best original screenplay for “Crash.”