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Comment: Time for Polanski to face the music

Sat Oct 10 08:59PM

Roman Polanski learnt three lessons this week: The law doesn't forgive a crime no matter who you are; the law doesn't forget about it if you hide for 30 years; and the law doesn't give a damn who your friends are.

In 1977 Polanski admitted to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old-girl but before he could be tried for his crime the filmmaker fled the US to Paris where he has spent the last 30 years safe in the knowledge France has no extradition treaty with America.

Two weeks ago Polanski's crime caught up with him when he was on his way to pick up a lifetime achievement award in Switzerland, which does have an extradition treaty with the US. When Polanski landed in Zurich, police arrested him on the 31-year-old warrant and this week he has had his appeal for bail turned down amid fears he would flee once more.

This caused uproar in many cinematic circles around the world. How dare they arrest a famous filmmaker for having sex with an underage girl? Don't they know who he is? Haven't they seen ‘Chinatown'?

700 Hollywood luminaries such as Woody Allen, Penelope Cruz and Martin Scorsese even went so far as to sign a petition demanding Polanski's release. They were in a state of shock.

Do you think they found the testimony of the girl abused by Polanski, Samantha Gailey, equally as shocking? According to her testimony to the grand jury in LA in 1978, Polanski offered to take photos of her for Vogue, slipped a drug into her champagne, demanded to know the time of her last period, and despite cries of "No I don't want to do this" lifted her legs and sodomised her.

Despite this, what truly shocks them about this whole thing is that Polanski has been arrested for his crime. What if this happened to their children? Would the 700 luminaries be so forgiving then?

Duncan Campbell in The Guardian points out that Samantha Gailey no longer wants Polanski tried on these charges and argues that "if she can show compassion, so should the law".

It should be noted that Samantha Gailey's ‘compassion' was seemingly bought by Polanski for $500,000 in 1993 when they reached a settlement of undisclosed terms. I would hasten to speculate that her silence was one of those terms.

Should this affect whether a man is brought to justice? No - you simply cannot buy your way out of trouble, that is not how laws were designed to work.

The Swiss courts made the right decision this week by not letting him flee again and as Anthony Grayling put it in The Times, there will be no hiding place for the guilty. "Neither fame nor wealth, nor time, nor distance, should render anyone immune."

Comments1 - 10 of 323

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sick @#$%er.
Lock the @#$% up and throw away the key......................if he is guilty.

From dreenworld on Sat Oct 10 09:10PM
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here here !!!!

From denisepurtell on Sat Oct 10 09:21PM
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Can't help notice the similarities between Polanski's case and that of a certain M. Jackson. Accusations of child @#$% abuse, and the alleged victim supposedly bought off with a sizeable sum of money in return for their silence. Yet why do many of those who line up to decry Polanksi and shout for him to be locked away, worship Jackson as a hero. Double standards for some reason there, I think. If buying your victim's silence worked for Jackson to get the charges dropped, why not for Polanksi? Plus, Polanksi's alleged victim has called for the case to be dropped, so why not? Did he een know how old she was at the time anyway? She probably told him she was 19.

From cal_clem on Sat Oct 10 09:29PM
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I cannot understand the problem. If this man is found guilty of the crime of which he is accused, then he should face the full mighty of the law and due process. No matter who the hell he is or what he has achieved!

From diubell47 on Sat Oct 10 09:38PM
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Well hell, cal_clem, if she told him she was 19, that makes it all okay, doesn't it?! The thing that Polanski (and sadly so many other men) don't seen to understand is that no means no! Polanski raped a 13-year-old. If he were anyone other than a "famous filmmaker" (or a famous musician perhaps?), EVERYBODY, including all those poor deluded actors now supporting him would have been rightly baying for his head, and he'd have been in jail years ago.

From meegsc on Sat Oct 10 10:13PM
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another rich famouse pedo thought he could get away with it
HANG THEM ALL
MICHEAL JACKSON ESCAPED SO CALLED JUSTICE
GLAD THE @#$%
DEAD

From billquinn2000 on Sat Oct 10 10:14PM
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Ignorance has never been a defence - Cal are you even old enough to recall the event?
She was raped - end of.
Why does any length of time,amount of money or so called achievements stop that being wrong?
She may well have moved on and I hope she has gone on to live a happy fufilling life and made herself a rape survivor not a rape victim but the fact that he forced himself on her remains.
13 19 21 35 109 it doesn't matter the age if someone male or female says NO then NO it is.

From pinkandsparklysarah on Sat Oct 10 10:19PM
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cal_clem.. no3... the fact that she alleges she was drugged and says she refused her permission to proceed negates how old Polanski thought she was. The Jackson debacle should not have anything to do with this, although the lawyers might argue otherwise. Do you really want a legal system to be in place where the alleged perpetrator can buy the silence of the alleged victim? This means that the rich can buy their way out of any crime they wish to commit, and I,for one,would think the law had failed completely if this was allowed to happen.

From diubell47 on Sat Oct 10 10:35PM
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HE DRUGGED RAPED AND SODOMISED A 13 YEAR OLD GIRL. anyone who defends him agree's with child @#$% abuse , this man is a monster HE WAS GIVEN AN OSCAR BY HOLLYWOOD DESPITE THE FACT THEY KNEW WHAT HE HAD DONE. THE MEDIA IS FULL OF SICK SICK PEOPLE. this is why they become drug addicts and alcholic's its given to them and is part of the fame scene ALCHOL AND DRUGS WARP THE MIND IF THEY ARE TAKEN LONG ENOUGH. polanski is not an alcholic or a drug addict that we know off but he is a sicko who needs to be locked up.

From liammateer on Sat Oct 10 10:48PM
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As far as remember he admitted guilt in court and fled before sentencing.The victim was compensated giving her a greater start and FORGAVE him.Anyone remember Jerry Lee Lewis he married his cousin when she was 13years old and IT WAS LEGAL?????????

From goldenbeast69 on Sat Oct 10 11:02PM
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