Girl raped by director Polanski tells of impact on life
In the late 1970s the film director Roman Polanski admitted to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. He spent 42 days in prison then fled the United States because he feared being given a longer sentence. He was rearrested in Switzerland in 2009 and spent months in prison and under house arrest before being released.
Much has been said and written about what happened, but we have hardly heard anything from the girl herself. Now the woman at the centre of the decades-old scandal, Samantha Geimer, has written a book about how the event changed her life.
She told HARDTalk's Sarah Montague she feels the media and legal circus that followed was more painful than what happened that night.
This programme was first transmitted in September 2013.
You can watch the full interview on Monday 28 August 2017 on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel and after on BBCiPlayer (UK only).
17 Sep 2013
- From the section US & Canada