Prosecutors will not bring criminal charges against Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski after a woman said he molested her in 1975 – when she was 10.
Artist Marianna Barnard told police she was molested during a photo shoot on Will Rogers State beach in Malibu, California, after Polanski made her pose nude.
The latest allegations were reported to police in October.
But Los Angeles prosecutors are declining to bring charges in the case because the statute of limitations had expired, a district attorney’s office memo obtained by The Associated Press on Monday says.
Artist Marianna Barnard (above) told police she was molested during a photo shoot in 1975 after Roman Polanski made her pose nude
Prosecutors will not bring criminal charges against the Oscar-winning director because the statute of limitations has expired
Polanski’s attorney, Harland Braun, has said the allegations are untrue.
Last month, Ms Barnard said she had been inspired to come forward by actresses like Rose McGowan who spoke out in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Now in the early 50s, Ms Barnard claimed Polanski took pictures of her in a bikini before asking her to change into an open fur coat and then molested her.
She said her mother had initiated the meeting and taken her to a beach near their home to meet Polanski for the shoot – which she believed was for a magazine.
‘First he was taking pictures of me in the bikini, then it was in the coast then he said take off the bikini top, which I was comfortable with as I was only 10 and I often ran around with no top on,’ she told The Sun.
Ms Barnard said she started to feel ‘very uncomfortable’ when Polanski wanted her to remove her bikini bottoms.
Ms Barnard (above, when she was a child) clams Polanski molested her on a beach when she was 10
Now in the early 50s, Ms Barnard claimed Polanski took pictures of her in a bikini before asking her to change into an open fur coat and then molested her
Polanski (pictured in 1969) has been a fugitive since fleeing to France in 1978 while awaiting sentencing for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old
‘Then at some point I realised my mom had gone.
‘I don’t know where she went and I didn’t really register her leaving but she was no longer there. Then he molested me.’
She said she’s suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for decades because of it.
Ms Barnard has set up a petition urging The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – which quickly kicked out Weinstein – to revoke Polanski’s board membership. It has attracted more than 20,000 signatures.
Polanski, 84, has been a fugitive since fleeing to France in 1978 while awaiting sentencing for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old.
Two of the accusers have claimed they were attacked in 1969 – the same year Polanski’s first wife Sharon Tate (pictured on their wedding day) was murdered by members of the Charles Manson family
Eleven women have come forward to accuse Polanski of molesting or sexually assaulting them.
Two of the accusers have claimed they were attacked in 1969 – the same year Polanski’s first wife Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Charles Manson family.
The latest woman to come forward with allegations against Polanski is 77-year-old Mallory Millet, who claimed he tried to rape her twice.
In November, Ms Millet claimed she was a struggling young actress when she met Polanski at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 1970.
She said that she had been warned by the friends accompanying them to dinner that the director was high on LSD.
Ms Millet claimed that when her friends left Polanski’s suite, he tried to rape her.
Despite this, she said she met the director a second time and he apologized.
‘I ended up alone with him, he tried to put his arms around me and hold me down and I had to flee for a second time,’ she told The Sun.