Director Paul Haggis released from hotel detention following sexual abuse claim

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/05/director-paul-haggis-released-sexual-abuse-claim

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Director’s lawyer says prosecutors in Italy are deciding whether to investigate allegation he had sex with a woman without consent

A judge in southern Italy on Monday ordered the film director Paul Haggis released from detention at his hotel while prosecutors decide whether to pursue their investigation of whether he allegedly had sex with a woman without her consent over two days, his lawyer said.

Michele Laforgia told the Associated Press that his client Haggis, who is also a screenwriter and an Academy Award winner, was still in Italy. The ruling was made by Judge Vilma Gilli, based in Puglia, which is the region that forms the “heel” of the Italian peninsula.

The Canada-born Haggis, 69, was detained by police on 19 June in Puglia after a woman told authorities that he had non-consensual sex with her over two days while he was in Italy to participate in an arts festival in the tourist town of Ostuni.

He had proclaimed his innocence, according to the lawyer.

Laforgia said in text messages that the judge had ruled there were neither signs of violence nor abuse found on the woman, who prosecutors have described as young and foreign and by Italian media as a 28-year-old Englishwoman.

The courthouse was closed on Monday evening, and Gilli could not immediately be reached for comment.

Corriere della Sera, quoting from the judge’s ruling, said she concluded there was an “absence of constrictive violent behavior” by Haggis. The judge also noted in the ruling that the woman’s decision to be with Haggis in his lodgings was “spontaneous”, the Italian daily said.

It was Gilli who on 22 June, after a closed-door hearing, had ordered Haggis to remain in detention while the investigation continued.

Prosecutors did not immediately say if they would move to drop the investigation or pursue it after the judge’s ruling.

Asked if the case might be closed, Laforgia replied “let’s see what the prosecutor’s office will do at this point”.

Haggis, who resides in the United States, has had other legal problems. In recent years, four women in the US have alleged sexual misconduct by him.