Judge in Italy weighs if Paul Haggis goes free in sex abuse probe
Global News
Haggis' lawyer said after the hearing in Brindisi that his client reiterated his total innocence and is in "hopeful expectation" that he will be ultimately vindicated.
BRINDISI, Italy — A judge in southern Italy on Wednesday was weighing whether Academy Award-winning film director Paul Haggis should go free while Italian prosecutors investigate a woman’s allegations that he had sex with her over two days without her consent.
Haggis’ lawyer, Michele Laforgia, said after the hearing Wednesday in Brindisi courthouse that his client reiterated his total innocence and is in “hopeful expectation” that he will be ultimately vindicated.
Judge Vilma Giil was expected to issue her decision later Wednesday.
“Paul Haggis answered all questions and explained what happened,” Laforgia told reporters outside the courthouse. “He declared himself, as he had already done right after the detention, completely innocent, in the sense that the sex he had with this woman was totally consensual.”
While the woman’s allegations are investigated, the 69-year-old Canadian-born director, producer and screenwriter was ordered on Sunday to stay detained in his guest residence in a farmhouse in Ostuni, a popular tourist town in Puglia, the region forming the “heel” of the Italian peninsula.
Prosecutors have said he is under investigation for alleged aggravated sexual violence and aggravated personal injuries.
They didn’t immediately comment after the hearing, which lasted several hours.
Prosecutors have described the woman as young and foreign. State TV and other Italian media said she is a 30-year-old Englishwoman who had known Haggis before he came to Ostuni to participate in an arts festival that began this week.
