Allen: Polanski has paid for sex scandal

Actor and film maker Woody Allen restated his support for fugitive director Roman Polanski, under house arrest over a 33-year-old child sex scandal.

In an interview with France Info radio from the Cannes Film Festival, Allen said Polanski, 76, “was embarrassed by the whole thing”, “has suffered” and “has paid his dues”.

He said Polanski was “an artist and is a nice person” who “did something wrong and he paid for it”.

Polanski, the Oscar-winning director of 'Rosemary’s Baby', 'Chinatown' and 'The Pianist', was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and part of the hypnotic drug Quaalude and raping her at Jack Nicholson’s house in Los Angeles in 1977.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse but fled to France before sentencing and remained a fugitive until Swiss authorities arrested him on September 26 last year on a US warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival.

He was taken into custody in September and is currently under house arrest in Gstaad.

Earlier this week, new allegations surfaced when British actress Charlotte Lewis, 42, claimed Polanski had sexually abused her when she was 16.

It was not clear whether Allen was aware of the new allegations when he made the remarks. He has previously signed a petition calling for Polanski’s release.

Allen himself is no stranger to scandal. His relationship with actress Mia Farrow ended in 1992 when she found out he was having an affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, then 22. Allen married Ms Previn in 1997.