A Paris court has acquitted director Roman Polanski of defamation against a British actor who accused him of raping her when she was a teenager.
In 2019, he told Paris Match magazine that Charlotte Lewis had lied about being sexually assaulted four decades ago.
Ms. Lewis, 56, filed a lawsuit against the 90-year-old film producer.
She told the court in March that she had been the victim of a “smear campaign” that had “almost destroyed” her.
In 1978, Polanski fled the United States after admitting to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Several other women have since come forward to accuse Polanski of abusing them. He denies all accusations against him.
In 2010, Ms Lewis accused the director of assaulting her in the “worst possible way” in Paris in 1983 when she was 16 and traveling to Paris for a casting call. She later appeared in his 1986 film Pirates.
But in an interview with Paris Match magazine, the French-born filmmaker claimed it was an “outrageous lie”. He did not attend the hearing.
During the interview, he allegedly read a 1999 article from British tabloid News of the World in which Lewis was quoted as saying: “I’m fascinated by him, I want to be him,” Paris Match reported lover.
Ms. Lewis said her quotes from that interview were inaccurate.
She filed a defamation lawsuit and the film director was automatically charged under French law.
