Swiss police confirmed on Tuesday night they were investigating a new child rape allegation against Roman Polanski.
Renate Langer, a 61-year-old German woman, said she was attacked by the controversial film director in his home in Gstaad when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl.
The February 1972 assault is the latest in a string of similar allegations made by a total of four different women against 84-year-old Mr Polanski, who is now married with two children.
Renate Langer, a 61-year-old German woman, said she was attacked by the controversial film director in his home in Gstaad when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl
Detectives in the Swiss town of Gallen met Ms Langer last week, and she made a formal criminal complaint.
The authorities in Switzerland must now decide whether it happened too long ago to take the matter further, or whether prosecutors think they can secure a successful conviction. ‘The case is being examined,’ said a spokesman for Gallen police.
Mr Polanski pleaded guilty in the USA in 1977 to having unlawful sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer but fled the country before be could be sentenced.
He now lives almost permanently in Paris with his family, as France does not have an extradition treaty with America.
Asked by the New York Times why she did not report the matter earlier, Ms Langer said: ‘My mother would have had a heart attack. I felt ashamed and embarrassed and lost and solo.’
Both of Ms Langer’s parents are now dead, and she said she felt the time was right to speak out.
In August an American woman identified only as Robin M. said that Mr Polanski assaulted her in 1973 when she was 16.
The February 1972 assault is the latest in a string of similar allegations made by a total of four different women against 84-year-old Mr Polanski, who is now married with two children
And in 2010 the British actress Charlotte Lewis said she was sexually assaulted by Mr Polanski as a 16-year-old.
Lawyers for Mr Polanski refused to discuss the latest accusation. They have denied all previous claims, except for Ms Geimer’s.
Mr Polanski has become involved in serious legal problems during brief visits to Switzerland and Poland in the past, but judges there have always declined to extradite him to America.
Judges in California have refused to drop the outstanding case against Mr Polanski on two occasions, despite Mr Polanski considering the matter closed.
In a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Mr Polanski said: ‘As far as what I did, it’s over. I pleaded guilty.’
It is alleged that Ms Langer, who had a career as an actress, was first introduced to Mr Polanski while she was working for a modeling agency in Munich as a child.
Ms Langer claims that he invited her to his house in Gstaad to discuss her future career opportunities in film, and it was then she says that she was raped.
Ms Langer later accepted a small role in Mr Polanski’s film ‘Che?’ and was again raped by the director in Rome. ‘This had an influence on all of my life,’ said Ms Langer.
Despite mainly being confined to France, Mr Polanski has won eight Cesars – the French equivalent of an Oscar – and won the best director Academy Award for the Holocaust movie, The Pianist.
Mr Polanski was born in Paris, but his Jewish parents moved the family back to Poland, where they were persecuted during the Nazi Holocaust.
His mother died in a concentration camp, while he managed to survive the war, mainly through pretending to be a Roman Catholic.