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Canadian director Paul Haggis under house arrest in Italy
after sexual assault allegation
Haggis being investigated after woman sought medical care for alleged incident last week
Megan Williams ·
CBC News · Posted: Jun 20, 2022 9:26 AM ET
Paul Haggis is shown at a New York Film Festival event in October 2017. Italian police are gathering information about an alleged sexual assault Haggis has been accused of, and expect to make a further determination in the coming days. (Evan Agostini/Invision/The Associated Press)
Canadian-born and Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis is under house arrest in Italy after a woman accused him of sexual assault on Sunday.
Haggis, 69, is in Italy for a film festival that begins on Tuesday in Ostuni, a town in the southern Italian region of Puglia.
The office of prosecutors Antonio Negro and Livia Orlando, who are conducting the investigation, issued a statement saying the woman was "forced to seek medical care" following a couple of days "of non-consensual relations" with Haggis.
The assault was alleged to have taken place between June 12 and June 15. Police say Haggis left the woman at the Brindisi airport at dawn "despite [her] precarious physical and psychological conditions."
Brindisi State Police Insp. Vincenzo Leo told CBC News the arrest took place at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday.
Haggis has been formally charged with aggravated sexual assault and grievous bodily harm.
Woman in a 'confused state': police
Police say the arrest comes after airport workers noticed a woman, whom Haggis had dropped off at the airport, looking disoriented and in need of assistance.
"She was found in a confused state," Leo told CBC. "She was acting strange, very out of it. But so far we have found no trace of drugs. She wasn't crying, but psychologically stressed."
Airport authorities contacted the state police in Brindisi, at which point the woman was brought into a police station before being taken to hospital. There, she underwent a physical examination and was discharged Sunday night.
On Sunday, Haggis's U.S.-based attorney, Priya Chaudhry, told the Associated Press, "I am confident that all allegations will be dismissed against Mr. Haggis. He is totally innocent, and willing to fully co-operate with the authorities so the truth comes out quickly."
Haggis is currently under house arrest in an apartment near Brindisi. He has the right to see family members only, some of whom were already in Italy with him.
Police say Haggis will remain under house arrest until a judge decides whether to extend it, apply other cautionary measures such as jail or preventing him from leaving Italy, or free him completely.
A decision will come in the next four to five days, police say.
Born in London, Ont., Haggis began working in episodic television in Hollywood in the 1980s. He earned an Academy Award for just the second motion picture he directed, 2004's Crash, and has screenwriting credits for the Clint Eastwood films Million Dollar Baby and Flags of Our Fathers, as well as the James Bond movies Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
Haggis is in Italy to attend the Allora Fest, where he was set to appear with Oliver Stone, Matt Dillon, Edward Norton and Marisa Tomei.
The festival immediately distanced itself from Haggis, cancelling all events he was part of.
Haggis has been accused of sexual assault by four other women in the U.S., with one civil lawsuit still pending. If convicted of the charges in Italy, he could face up to 10 years in prison.
US jury finds Bill Cosby sexually assaulted teen in 1970s
Issued on: 22/06/2022 - 01:56
France24
Bill Cosby, seen here in June 2017, was determined by a jury to have molested a teenager in 1975
EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ AFP/File
Los Angeles (AFP) – Bill Cosby sexually assaulted a teenager at the Playboy Mansion almost 50 years ago, a jury in California found Tuesday, in the first civil ruling against the veteran entertainer following dozens of allegations.
Judy Huth, now aged 64, was awarded $500,000 in damages after the jury in Santa Monica determined that Cosby had molested her in 1975 when she was just 16 years old after meeting her on a movie set and plying her with alcohol.
The case is the only successful legal action against Cosby, 84, who has been accused of using his fame to prey on women over several decades.
The man formerly known as "America's Dad" was jailed in Pennsylvania for drugging and molesting a woman in a separate criminal case in 2018, but was freed last year when his conviction was overturned on a technicality.
Over a two-week civil hearing, which Cosby did not attend, lawyers said he escorted Huth and her then-17-year-old friend, Donna Samuelson, to Hugh Hefner's mansion after meeting them on a movie set.
The jury heard how when Huth was alone with Cosby, the actor began kissing her and tried to put his hands inside her clothes.
They were told how he then allegedly pulled down his own trousers and forced her to perform a sex act on him.
Lawyer Nathan Goldberg said for many years Huth had repressed memories of the assault but that it came to the fore for her when other women began accusing him of assaulting them.
Much-loved star
"It was like a cork popped out of a bottle," said Goldberg at the start of the case. "Memories came rushing to the surface... she became overwhelmed by memories of Mr Cosby and what he had done."
She originally filed her lawsuit in December 2014, but the case was put on hold while various criminal investigations played out.
The civil trial was shown a videotaped deposition of Cosby taken in 2015 in which he denied the assault, and insisted that he would never engage in sexual activity with an underage girl.
His lawyers made much of apparent discrepancies in Huth's story, including that both teens spent up to 12 hours at the mansion after the alleged assault.
They also argued that Huth originally claimed the attack happened in 1974 when she was 15, but later said it had happened the following year.
The case was never prosecuted criminally as the statute of limitations had passed by the time Huth spoke to police.
California law allows adults who say they were sexually abused as minors, but have only recently become aware of the damage, to bring civil cases years after the statute of limitations would normally have expired.
Cosby was a towering figure in late-20th century American popular culture, and hit the big time as affable obstetrician and father Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," which ran from 1984-92.
But around 60 women, many of them onetime aspiring actresses and models, have publicly branded Cosby a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol to bed them over four decades.
Shamed SNP MP Patrick Grady steps aside amid
Metropolitan Police probe into sexual harassment
Rebecca McCurdy
14:34, 26 Jun 2022
An SNP MP has suspended his party membership amid a police investigation into sexual harassment allegations.
It's understood Patrick Grady will no longer be an SNP MP for Glasgow North and will sit as an independent.
Shamed SNP MP Patrick Grady has stepped asideCredit: Alamy
The Metropolitan Police confirmed it is investigating an alleged incident at a London pub in 2016.
A parliamentary probe saw Mr Grady suspended from Westminster for two days after he was found to have acted inappropriately towards a male SNP staff member.
Mr Grady, the SNP's former chief whip, said he was "profoundly sorry" after the independent panel's investigation.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford had urged Mr Grady to consider his position after criticism of the party's handling of the complaint.
That came after Mr Blackford was heard in a leaked recording to tell SNP MPs to rally round Mr Grady, saying he looked forward to "welcoming Patrick back" following his two-day suspension.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed inquiries are ongoing.
He added: "On Wednesday, June 22, police received an allegation of sexual assault that is said to have taken place in October 2016 at a commercial premises in Folgate Street, E1.
"The report was submitted online by a third party. Officers will now be making inquiries, including contacting the alleged victim, in order to assess what further action is required."
An SNP spokesman said: "Patrick Grady is stepping away from his party membership while the police inquiry continues."
Ghislaine Maxwell was placed on suicide watch
after she reported that jail staff had threatened her safety
So, Ghislaine is in danger of being suicided, like Epstein
By REUTERS and DAILYMAIL.COM REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 16:40 EDT, 26 June 2022
Ghislaine Maxwell reported that Brooklyn jail staff threatened her safety, prompting employees to place her on suicide watch, prosecutors said on Sunday, arguing there was no need to delay her sentencing on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell, 60, is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday for her December conviction for helping her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, the globe-trotting financier and convicted sex offender, abuse girls between 1994 and 2004. Prosecutors say she deserves between 30 and 55 years in prison.
In court filings on Saturday, Maxwell's lawyers said she was placed on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) and asked for a delay to her sentencing. On Sunday, prosecutors argued no delay was needed because Maxwell had her legal documents and could get the same amount of sleep.
They said Maxwell was transferred after reporting threats to her safety by MDC staff to the federal Bureau of Prisons' inspector general.
Maxwell refused to elaborate about why she feared for her safety, prosecutors said. She told psychology staff she was not suicidal.
Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney said her client has been placed on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Brooklyn. Pictured: Maxwell with billionaire pedophile Jeffery Epstein (left)
An undated Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Queen's log cabin at Glen Beg, Balmoral. Maxwell faces a maximum of 55 years in jail for her part in Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, but the prosecution are pushing for only 20 years
Maxwell's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Bureau of Prisons said it does not comment on any particular inmate's confinement conditions.
Prosecutors said the jail's warden will oversee an investigation.
'Given the defendant's inconsistent accounts to the (inspector general) and to psychology staff, the Chief Psychologist assesses the defendant to be at additional risk of self-harm, as it appears she may be attempting to be transferred to a single cell where she can engage in self-harm,' prosecutors said in a court filing.
On Saturday, Bobbi Sternheim, who represents Maxwell, submitted a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathon on Saturday, stating that she had been placed on suicide watch.
Sternheim claimed this was done 'without having conducted a psychological evaluation and without justification,' with Maxwell allegedly wearing a 'suicided smock,' a large piece of fabric that can't be used to fashion a noose, and placed in solitary confinement.
Sternheim argued Maxwell's sentencing needed to be postponed while she remains on suicide watch, even if the lawyer claimed she 'is not suicidal.'
Maxwell, 60, is due back in court on Tuesday with prosecutors requesting a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison.
She is currently being held in the general population area of the notorious prison, where an inmate recently threatened to kill her.
A source told The Mail on Sunday: 'One woman was going around openly bragging that she was going to murder Ghislaine for $1 million.
Maxwell's placement on suicide watch comes nearly three years after police announced Espetein, 66, killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell, where the financier was awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Sternheim condemned the treatment of her client, who she said was not even permitted to hold a pen or paper inside solitary confinement.
'If Ms. Maxwell remains on suicide watch, is prohibited from reviewing legal materials prior to sentencing, becomes sleep-deprived, and is denied sufficient time to meet with and confer with counsel, we will be formally moving on Monday for an adjournment,' Sternheim wrote.
Maxwell was convicted on December 29 on five criminal counts, including sex trafficking, for recruiting and grooming four girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Prosecutors have said Maxwell should spend at least 30 years in prison, citing her 'utter lack of remorse.' Maxwell wants a term shorter than 20 years.
The sentence will be imposed by U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan federal court.
Maxwell has been held in the Brooklyn jail since shortly after her July 2020 arrest.
Her lawyers objected multiple times before trial about the confinement conditions there, including last November when Sternheim likened them to Hannibal Lecter's from the 1991 Oscar-winning film 'The Silence of the Lambs.'
Maxwell has also requested a more lenient sentence of just four years and three months in jail, arguing that she is being scapegoated as a proxy for Epstein's crimes.
Her legal filings claimed that helping launch the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) demonstrated she has a 'desire to do good in the world'.
The question is, does she know what "good" means?
Defense lawyers said in a sentencing submission last week that she should spend no more than five years in prison.
The filing states: 'Ms. Maxwell has always worked hard. Her many educational, occupational, and avocational accomplishments include becoming an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), a helicopter pilot, a submersible pilot, a banker; partnering with the Cleveland Clinic to establish a telemedicine platform to enable people in remote areas to obtain quality medical treatment; helping develop the Clinton Global Initiative; and supporting a variety non-profit and charitable organizations'.
In a later section, the document states that Maxwell is not an 'heiress, villain, or vapid socialite'.
But prosecutors said Maxwell played an 'instrumental role in the horrific sexual abuse of multiple young teenage girls' between 1994 and 2004 at some of Epstein's palatial residences. They called her crimes 'monstrous.'
'As part of a disturbing agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell identified, groomed, and abused multiple victims, while she enjoyed a life of extraordinary luxury and privilege. In her wake, Maxwell left her victims permanently scarred with emotional and psychological injuries,' prosecutors wrote.
'That damage can never be undone, but it can be accounted for in crafting a just sentence for Maxwell´s crimes,' they added.
'It appears that the defendant viewed the victims as objects who could be manipulated for her and Epstein's own selfish purposes without any regard for their personal wellbeing, health, or safety.'
'The Defendant's Role in the Conspiracy Maxwell's conduct was shockingly predatory. She was a calculating, sophisticated, and dangerous criminal who preyed on vulnerable young girls and groomed them for sexual abuse'.
Prosecutors also urged the judge to reject Maxwell's pleas for leniency on the grounds that she has suffered in extraordinary ways in jail while awaiting trial and afterward.
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