Reports: Oscar winner Paul Haggis detained in Italy in sex assault case

19 June 2022, 20:24

Paul Haggis with the Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year for Crash
Academy Awards – Oscars – Kodak Theatre. Picture: PA

Prosecutors Antonio Negro and Livia Orlando, who are conducting the investigation, said in the statement the woman was “forced to seek medical care”.

Film director Paul Haggis has been detained for the investigation of allegations he sexually assaulted a woman in south Italy, Italian news media said, quoting local prosecutors.

The Canadian-born, Oscar-winning Haggis, 69, has been in Italy for a film festival that begins on Tuesday in Ostuni, a tourist town in Puglia, the region that forms the ‘heel’ of the Italian peninsula.

The news agency LaPresse and several other Italian media carried a written statement from prosecutors in the nearby city of Brindisi that they were investigating allegations a “young foreign woman” was forced to have “non-consensual” sexual relations over two days.

Prosecutors Antonio Negro and Livia Orlando, who are conducting the investigation, said in the statement the woman was “forced to seek medical care”.

After a couple of days “of non-consensual relations, the woman was accompanied by the man” to Brindisi airport on Sunday and “left there at dawn despite (her) precarious physical and psychological conditions”, they said.

The woman formalised her complaint and cited circumstances which were subsequently looked into for confirmation by investigators

Prosecutors

The Brindisi prosecutors’ office was closed on Sunday.

Haggis’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The prosecutors said airport staff and police noticed her “obvious confused state” and after some initial treatment, took her to Brindisi’s police headquarters, where officers accompanied her to a local hospital for examination.

Police in the headquarters’ operations room said they were not authorised to give out information about the case, including whether Haggis was being held at the police station or at a hotel or other lodging.

Haggis is a director, producer and screenwriter.

He won an Oscar in 2006 for best original screenplay for Crash.

Prosecutors were also quoted as saying the woman “formalised her complaint and cited circumstances which were subsequently looked into for confirmation by investigators”.

They did not cite her nationality or age.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Donald Trump has branded Zelenskyy a "dictator."

Trump labels Zelenskyy a ‘dictator,' says he owes US billions and only wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going

Russia's President Vladimir Putin said thousands of troops have crossed the Kursk border into Ukrainian territory.

Thousands of troops storm into Ukraine in fresh attack, Russia claims as Putin insists he’s ready for talks with Zelesnkyy

Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Chinese tourist village slammed for using fake snow to draw in visitors

Charlotte Peet has gone missing in Brazil.

Father of Brit journalist missing in Brazil breaks silence as he reveals moment daughter's 'trail went cold'

Avoriaz is a French mountain resort

Brit skier, 23, found dead beneath French Alps cliff after 'plunging 260ft on return from night out'

Austrian police arrest teenager over 'attack at railway station'

Isis supporting boy, 14, 'who planned attack at railway station' held by Austrian police

Davi Nunes Moreira, of Planalto, Brazil, passed away seven days after injecting a solution made from a crushed butterfly into his leg.

Boy who injected himself with crushed butterfly for 'online challenge' suffered week of agonising symptoms before death

Near-Earth asteroid, artwork

NASA scientist increase chance of 'city killer' asteroid 'the size of Big Ben' striking earth

Exclusive
Sadiq Khan

'It's bonkers': Sadiq Khan hits out at Trump for 'rewarding' Putin while excluding Ukraine from peace talks

The mother of Lindsay Foreman, left, who is being detained in Iran for alleged espionage, says the charges are made up.

Mother of Brit detained in Iran during round-the-world motorbike trip says espionage charges are 'made up'

Pope Francis

Pope Francis fears he 'may not survive' as Pontif battles 'complex' double pneumonia

False killer whales became stranded on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, on a remote beach on near Arthur River in Australia's island state of Tasmania.

Horror as nearly 100 false killer whales set to be euthanised after mass stranding on Australian beach

Charlotte Peet has gone missing in Brazil.

Desperate hunt for missing Brit journalist, 32, who vanished almost two weeks ago in Brazil

Craig and Lindsay Foreman

Did motorbike couple's 'happiness' survey prompt arrest on spying charges in Iran?

The Vatican says Pope Francis is being treated for 'bilateral pneumonia'

New scans show Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs but Vatican says he remains ‘in good spirits’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned 'any appearance by armed forces under some other flag' in Ukraine would be 'completely unacceptable', in a dig at a peace plan floated by Keir Starmer.

Keir Starmer’s Ukraine peacekeeping plan ‘completely unacceptable’, Russia tells US in Saudi Arabia talks