Paul Haggis’ trip to Puglia will be remembered not so much for the beauties of the place as for the accusation of sexual violence and aggravated personal injury that rained on the director while he was in Ostuni, a guest of the kermesse Then Fest. According to what was communicated by the Public Prosecutor of Brindisi, Haggis, 2006 Academy Award winner for Crash – Physical contactallegedly forced a thirty-year-old English woman to have sexual intercourse for two days: the investigators explain that the woman, after the violence, was accompanied by the director to the Papola Casale airport in Brindisi and left there at the first light of dawn, despite her precarious physical and psychological conditions.
In the arrest order of Paul Haggis, the probative incident of the injured party was also requested, the result – the Prosecutor informs – of an articulated investigation activity that collected evidence subjected to scrutiny by the judicial authorities. To what we learn, the director had known the alleged victim for some time that, after one of the episodes of violence, she would have been forced to be medicated. “Check as soon as possible, I’m totally innocent”, Haggis said that, to be honest, this is not the first time he has faced allegations of sexual assault.
Haggis is, in fact, facing a lawsuit in the United States arising from the accusations made in 2017 by the press officer Haleigh Breest, who claimed she was raped by the director after a premiere in 2013. Four other women later came forward claiming they were victims of sexual harassment and assault, although Paul Haggis has consistently denied all allegations. The case had returned to talk in 2021, when Haggis had asked the judge to speed up the civil case by declaring that he was close to bankruptcy and that he could not cover the legal costs that would have reached almost two million dollars. Meanwhile, the organization of the festival Then Festeliminated any participation of the director from the event, expressing “full solidarity with the woman involved in the affair”.
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Source: Vanity Fair
