On May 14, 2024, a Paris court ruled that filmmaker Roman Polanski did not commit defamation against British actress Charlotte Lewis. Lewis had accused Polanski of raping her in the 1980s when she was 16, during a casting session at his Paris home. The court case focused on Polanski’s comments in a 2019 Paris Match interview, where he referred to Lewis's accusations as an “odious lie.” Polanski, aged 90, denied the rape allegations and has never stood trial in France for sexual assault, including Lewis’s case, due to expired statutes of limitations.
The court did not address the truth of the assault accusations but evaluated whether Polanski’s statements in the interview were defamatory. The prosecution suggested that Polanski merely expressed his opinion, responding to public claims against him, leading the court to rule in his favor. Polanski, who did not attend the proceedings, has lived in France since 1978 after fleeing the United States to avoid sentencing for pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. He continues to face legal repercussions in the U.S., which he avoids as France does not extradite its nationals.