Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, 69, arrested for ‘sexually assaulting woman in Italy before dumping her at airport’

By Alex Winter

OSCAR-WINNING director Paul Haggis has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman during a trip to Italy.

Prosecutors in Brindisi say the Canadian filmmaker is “seriously suspected of the crimes of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated personal injury”.

AFP

Paul Haggis has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault[/caption]

AP

Prosecutors allege a woman was held for two days before being dropped at an airport at dawn[/caption]

Haggis, 69, is best known for writing and producing Crash, which won a Best Picture Oscar.

He also wrote the script for Bond film Quantum of Solace.

News agency LaPresse reports the alleged victim, who isn’t Italian, was “forced to undergo sexual intercourse” over the course of two days.

She sought medical care after the encounter, it’s claimed.

Prosecutors Antonio Negro and Livia Orlando, who are conducting the investigation, said in a written statement the woman was accompanied to the airport in Brindisi and left there.

She was taken to a local hospital after airport staff and police noticed her in a “confused state”, it’s claimed.

Haggis has been in Italy for a film festival that begins on Tuesday in Ostuni, a tourist town in Puglia.

Variety confirmed with LA-based journalist Silvia Bisio, who was set to host a panel with Haggis, that he was arrested.

She said the festival is “completely taking its distance” from Haggis and will be issuing a statement to that effect.

The director is a twice-divorced dad-of-four.

He parted from second wife Deborah Rennard in 2016.

For more than three decades, Haggis was an active member of the Church of Scientology, but left in 2009.

He was later quoted in the New Yorker as saying: “I was in a cult for 34 years.

“Everyone else could see it.

“I don’t know why I couldn’t.”

His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

AFP

Haggis, who directed Crash and wrote the script for Quantum of Solace, is in Italy for a film festival[/caption]

Source: Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, 69, arrested for ‘sexually assaulting woman in Italy before dumping her at airport’

Category: News, World News, Police