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‘He Raped Me for Days,’ Alleged British Victim of Paul Haggis Told Cops


ROME — Police in the southern Italian city of Brindisi say the British woman made a complaint Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis of the brutal rape injured consistent with her allegation. “I was raped for several days,” the woman told investigative prosecutor Antonio Negro, according to a summary of arrest documents passed to The Daily Beast. “We were supposed to work together, but instead he raped me from Sunday night to Wednesday.”

According to her testimony to police, the woman, who Negro’s office said holds a British passport, was left by the director last Wednesday before dawn outside Brindisi airport in the province of Puglia, where located at the heel of Italy. According to the prosecutor’s office, she said she did not have a plane ticket, but he gave her money to buy one when the airport opened.

The prosecutor’s office said the woman was discovered by a flight attendant huddled in a corner of the small airport, who immediately alerted authorities. “She was destroyed,” the valet told police, according to initial investigative documents. “She spoke with difficulty.”

After an initial medical examination at the airport health clinic, she was taken to the hospital for treatment according to the Italian “pink protocol” for rape victims, including psychological counseling. The prosecutor’s office said she was “repeatedly sexually assaulted without consent”, including one incident so violently that she was “forced to seek medical attention”.

That terrible event appeared to have led to the end of her ordeal, as she said Haggis drove her to the airport in the early hours of Wednesday. The medical examiner’s report stated that she was incapable of having sex due to the violence.

The prosecutor’s office said that after she lost her ability to work, he drove her alone to the airport from the tourist town of Ostuni about an hour away, where the 69-year-old man—who has been accused of sexual misconduct by four other women—Noticing the Allora Festival with Oliver Stone, Matt Dillon, Edward Norton, and Marisa Tomei. The film and music festival immediately split from Haggis, canceling all events he was scheduled to attend.

Police then launched an investigation into the new allegations, surveying camera footage outside Haggis’ hotel room and the airport that showed she was with him. They then waited until the woman had safely left Italy to arrest the director on Sunday in Ostuni. His family later joined him. He is being held in the provincial capital Brindisi, where he will face the Italian equivalent of an arrangement on Monday or Tuesday.

A lawyer for Haggis, Priya Chaudhry, declined to comment on the case The Hollywood Reporter, citing a non-existent “law” that she said forbade her from commenting on ongoing cases. “That said, I am confident that all charges will be dismissed against Mr. Haggis,” Chaudhry said in an email to the outlet. “He is completely innocent and is ready to fully cooperate with the authorities so that the truth is quickly revealed.”

Haggis wrote two best picture Oscar movies with Million dollar baby in 2014 and Accident 2005. The latest incident is not the first time the Canadian director has been in legal trouble. Happenning civil lawsuit charges against him of violence were filed against him by journalist Haleigh Breest in 2017. A year later, three other women came forward to say he had sexually abused them. He denies all charges.

Haggis, who left the Church of Scientology in 2009, has stated that the sexual abuse allegations were simply retaliation by the church. His accusers deny that claim.



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