A third woman came forward Tuesday to accuse of sexual assault when she was a minor, four decades after he went on the run for raping another girl.
The woman, identified only as Robin, told a news conference in Los Angeles she was “sexually victimized” by the legendary French-Polish film director when she was just 16, in 1973.
“The day after it happened, I did tell one friend that Mr Polanski had done that to me,” she said, reading from a prepared statement.
“The reason, with this exception, that I kept it to myself is that I didn’t want my father to do something that might cause him to go to prison for the rest of his life.”
Robin said she was prompted to come forward after the victim at the center of a rape case against the famed director recently urged authorities to put the case to rest.
Lawyer Gloria Allred, who is representing the latest alleged victim, said the incident happened in southern California but added that her client would not be going into any further detail.
Although the statute of limitations has expired on her case, she could be called to testify in a future trial, the lawyer said.
The director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” who turns 84 on Friday, was accused of drugging Samantha Geimer when she was 13 before raping her at Jack Nicholson’s house in Los Angeles in 1977 while the film star was away.
Polanski admitted statutory rape after a number of more serious charges were dropped, and spent 48 days in custody to undergo psychiatric evaluation before being released.
According to court documents filed by his lawyer Harland Braun, Polanski was promised by the judge overseeing the case that the seven weeks he spent in custody would be the only time he would serve.
