A French actress has come forward with new accusations that director Roman Polanski raped her at a Switzerland ski chalet in 1975.
Valentine Monnier, speaking to French newspaper Le Parisien, said she was 18 years old when Polanski allegedly attacked her, ripped off her clothes and raped her following a dinner with friends at the ski chalet. The alleged incident, which Le Parisien corroborated with several people, occurred two years before Polanski’s alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1977.
“Rape is a time bomb. The memory does not fade. It becomes a ghost and it follows you, and it changes you insidiously,” Monnier told Le Parisien (via Variety).
“I denounce this crime knowing that there can’t be any punishment, in an attempt to end exceptions, impunity. Public figures are being considered as models. By idolizing the guilty ones, we prevent people from realizing the serious consequences of their acts.”
Monnier’s accusations arrived the same day the director’s latest film An Officer and a Spy opened in French theaters. Polanski’s lawyer Hervé Temime did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment, but the lawyer told Le Parisien that Polanski “firmly denies all accusations of rape… which date back 45 years have never been reported to judicial authorities.”
Since the statute of limitations for rape in France in 20 years, Polanski is unlikely to face any new charges following Monnier’s accusations. However, the actress noted that she previously revealed the alleged encounter in letters to French first lady Brigitte Macron and the Los Angeles Police Department. As the Associated Press notes, Monnier is the fourth women to accuse Polanski of sexual assault. The director remains in exile in Europe after fleeing sentencing in connection to the 1977 statutory rape.
