Brindisi, 22 June 2022 – It can pollute the tests e repeat the offense: Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, accused of sexual assault, remains under house arrest in Ostuni. This was decided by the investigating judge of the Court of Brindisi Vilma Gilli who, however, did not validate the arrest due to lack of the danger of escape, applying house arrest to her for precautionary reasons. The director is accused of abuse by a 28 year old English woman. This morning, in the interrogation with the judge, assisted by the lawyer Michele Laforgia, Haggis had pleaded innocent: “the relations he had with the woman, in the three days spent together in Ostuni, had been totally consensual”.
The lawyer Laforgia made it known that the judge held that “pending the hearing of the alleged victim, there is a risk of pollution of the only source of evidence”. And the danger of repeating the crime is “due to the pending civil litigation with a similar object in the United States“.
Already at the arrest of the director author of Crash, last June 19, the Public Prosecutor of Brindisi had asked the evidentiary incident with the woman allegedly victim of Haggis. “The provision – explains Laforgia – acknowledges the opposite versions of the offended person and the suspect, recognizing that in the medical reports there is no evidence of any physical injury to the alleged victim, as claimed by the defense during the hearing of validation “.
Haggis declared himself “completely unrelated to the accusations, trusting that the complete truth of the facts will be quickly re-established and freedom restored, “explained the lawyer of the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter.
The woman’s ticket
Shortly before leaving him, and of the complaint, the woman wrote a note to the director: “Dear Paul, thank you for your sudden invitation, I appreciated your kindness and hospitality in Ostuni, I loved art. I had a wonderful time in your companyI miss your touch and your caresses, we hope to see you soon in France or London or Mauritius … the bird of happiness lands on the shoulder of those who know how to wait “, emerged from the provision notified today to Haggis. 28-year-old told investigators she wrote the note at the suggestion of a friend to make Haggis understand “that he had not been able to expect me using violence,” the woman allegedly said. However, the judge also wrote that “the defensive version offers numerous ideas investigative “, but did not consider them” suitable to demolish the circumstantial framework “.