Director and producer Paul Haggis has been arrested in southern Italy on suspicion of sexual assault “aggravated” towards a young foreign woman, announced Sunday, June 19, the Italian press agencies quoting the prosecution. The Canadian was in Ostuni, in the province of Brindisi, for the Allora Fest film festival.
Mr. Haggis is “seriously suspected of crimes of sexual assault and aggravated bodily harm, crimes committed against a young foreign woman”, ANSA and AGI agencies reported, citing the Brindisi prosecutor. The prosecutor’s office did not provide further information on Sunday.
The young woman was with Mr. Haggis before the festival, according to the prosecution. “The suspect allegedly forced the young woman, whom he met some time before, to have sex”, said the prosecutor. In the press release, the prosecution also explains that the woman “was forced to seek medical treatment” after these relationships. After several days of “intercourse without consent, the woman was led by the man [Paul Haggis] » at Brindisi airport on Sunday, and there “was abandoned at dawn, despite her precarious physical and psychological state”.
Haggis denies the accusations
Mr. Haggis denied these allegations. “Investigate as soon as possible, I am completely innocent”, he said through his Italian lawyer, Michele Laforgia, according to the agencies. Neither the prosecutor’s office nor Mr. Laforgia were available on Sunday to respond to requests for additional information from Agence France Presse.
Paul Haggis, 69, who wrote and directed the film Collision which won him several Oscars, and wrote Million Dollar Baby in particularwas to be the star of the Allora Fest film festival.
In January 2018, in the wake of the Weinstein affair, the Canadian director was accused of sexual abuse by four other women, in a civil complaint filed in New York. One of Mr. Haggis’ lawyers, solicited, did not react on Sunday.