Third woman accuses Roman Polanski of sex attack

Image source, Reuters

Image caption, US courts have tried, unsuccessfully, to extradite Roman Polanski

Another woman has come forward to say she was sexually molested in the 1970s by the film director Roman Polanski.

The woman, named only as Robin, told a news conference that the alleged attack happened in 1973 when she was 16. She is the third woman to accuse Polanski of child abuse.

He fled the US in 1978 after admitting statutory rape of a 13-year-old.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, asked a Los Angeles court in June to end the case against him.

She said she had forgiven the filmmaker for the assault and wanted closure for herself and her family.

Robin, who appeared with her lawyer Gloria Allred in Los Angeles on Tuesday, cannot sue Polanski in a criminal court because the statute of limitation has passed.

However, she could testify against him in the case involving Ms Geimer.

She told journalists that she was "infuriated" that the case against Polanski, now 83, might be dropped and she believed he should still be held accountable for his assault on Samantha Geimer.

"The day after it happened, I did tell one friend that Mr Polanski had done that to me," she said.

"The reason, with this exception, that I kept it to myself is that I didn't want my father to do something that might cause him to go to prison for the rest of his life."

Polanski's lawyers have not yet commented on the latest accusations.

He admitted unlawful sex with a minor in 1977 and served 42 days in prison, but later fled the US over concern that a plea bargain deal would be scrapped.

The Oscar-winning director, who is a citizen of Poland and of France, has been a fugitive since.

In 2010 British actress Charlotte Lewis accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her in Paris in 1983, when she was 16 years old. She was also represented by lawyer Gloria Allred.