Polanski film cuts out ‘TV, no jail’ offer

A new documentary about Roman Polanski, which investigates the period in the late Seventies when the film director fled America to evade prosecution for having sex with an underage girl, has been re-edited following complaints from the Los Angeles Superior Court. The film, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which was shown on the US HBO channel on Monday, had originally concluded with the assertion that if Polanski had agreed to take part in a televised trail, as the trial judges had offered, he would have been spared a jail sentence.

The film had claimed that Polanski considered the proposal, but then turned it down fearing a media circus. However, when the Los Angeles Superior Court claimed this was "a complete fabrication", the director, Marina Zenovich, removed it. This has not pleased Douglas Dalton, who represented Polanski, and Roger Gunson, the former deputy district attorney who prosecuted the director. They stand by the claim, insisting that the presiding Judge, Larry Paul Fidler, did make the "go on TV, no jail" offer.

In a joint statement, they said: "It is our shared view that Monday's false and reprehensible statement by the Los Angeles Superior Court continues their inappropriate handling of the Polanski case." (Continued below)

However, Richard Doyle, director of the District Attorney's Specialised Prosecutions Bureau, rejects that version of events. "There was no requirement that the hearing be televised," he said. Doyle added that there no guarantee that Polanski would avoid jail were he to finally hand himself in after all these years. "While additional prison time would be unlikely if Mr Polanski's conduct has been favourable over the last three decades, prison always remains a possibility."

This would go against the wishes of Samantha Geimer, 45, the victim of the sexual assault. As The First Post reported recently, she now feels Polanski should not stand trial, saying: "It was 30 years ago now. It's an unpleasant memory ... (but) I can live with it."