Status: 06/20/2022 07:58 a.m
Film director and Oscar winner Paul Haggis has been arrested in southern Italy. The accusation: sexual violence against a woman. This is reported by several Italian media, citing prosecutors in Brindisi.
According to media reports, the Canadian director and Oscar winner Paul Haggis has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of serious sexual assault.
Woman files a complaint
As reported by the news agencies Ansa and AGI, citing the Brindisi prosecutor, the 69-year-old is said to have injured a “young foreign woman” in such a way that she needed medical help.
After two days of abuse, she was taken to Brindisi airport “accompanied by the man” on Sunday and left there alone in the morning despite her “precarious physical and mental condition,” it said.
According to the prosecutor’s statement, airport employees and the police became aware of the woman in an “apparently confused state” and took her to a hospital. The woman is said to have filed a complaint.
Haggis: “Completely innocent”
Haggis himself denies the allegations. He reportedly had his Italian lawyer Michele Laforgia declare that he was “completely innocent”.
Haggis directed the film Crash and wrote the screenplays for Million Dollar Baby and Casino Royale. He also became known for his open break with the Scientology organization.
Haggis had already been accused of sexual abuse by several women in the course of the scandal surrounding Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. He denies the allegations.