Paul Haggis, Oscar winner accused of sexual violence at Ostuni- Corriere.it

Oscar-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis, 69 He was arrested today in Ostuni (Brindisi) on charges of sexual violence and serious personal injury. According to the Brindisi Public Prosecutor in a note, the director allegedly forced a young foreign woman to have intercourse for two days in Ostuni where she participated in the “Alora Festival” event. According to investigators, the woman was accompanied by the director of Babola Casal Airport in Brindisi and left there with the first dawn, despite her precarious physical and psychological conditions. “Make inquiries as quickly as possible, I am completely innocent,” Haggis said through his attorney, Michel LaForgia.

At the airport, the alleged victim of violence was assisted by employees of Aeroporti di Puglia and the border police who, having given her first aid, escorted her to the offices of the mobile squad. The agents then took the woman to Perino Hospital in Brindisi, where the “Pink Protocol” for victims of violence was activated. Then, the alleged victim formalized the complaint. In the arrest warrant, the evidentiary fact of the injured party was also requested in order to crystallize the statements made. The action carried out derives – with the notification of the Attorney General – from a rigorous and clear investigative activity, conducted by the mobile team, which collected evidence subject to scrutiny by the judiciary. To our knowledge, the director had known for some time the alleged victim who, after one of the episodes of violence, could have been forced into treatment.

She was born 70 years ago in London but is a Canadian citizen, Paul Haggis won an Academy Award in 2006 for the screenplay for “Crash – Physical Contact”.. He was also the screenwriter for the movie “Million Dollar Baby” directed by Clint Eastwood. The director was in Puglia, it was said of the “then-festival” in Ostuni: he should have interviewed and talked to directors Edward Norton and Michael Nozick and had recently gone to Salento because he organized the short film for Mesagne, nominated for Capital of Culture 2024 The director had already received similar allegations In the past: In 2017, press secretary Haley Priest stated that she was raped by Haggis after the 2013 premiere. Since 2018, four more women have come forward alleging that they were harassed and harassed. Sexual assaults by the director. Haggis has always denied all the allegations.