Valentine Monnier accuses Roman Polanski of raping her
Valentine Monnier has accused Oscar winning director Roman Polanski of raping her when she was 18 in a ski chalet. Valentine Monnier waived her right to anonymity so as to describe the alleged horrific ordeal just as Polanski, 86, launches a new movie called ‘I accuse’.
Valentine Monnier told how she feared being murdered by the film director after he ‘violently raped’ her in Gstaad, Switzerland. Polanski is still wanted in America after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old schoolgirl in 1977 and then fleeing the country.
In a detailed victim statement released through the Parisien newspaper, Valentine Monnier said she now wanted to accuse Polanski of attacking her in a ski chalet in early 1975. Responding to the claims, a lawyer for the director said: ‘Roman Polanski firmly denies all accusations of rape.’
Valentine Monnier who is now 62, said: ‘In 1975 I was raped by Roman Polanski. I had no link with him, neither personnel, nor professional, and I hardly knew him. ‘It happened extremely violently, after we got back to his chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, from skiing.
‘He hit me, beat me until I surrendered, and then raped me and put me through all kinds of vicissitudes. I had just turned 18’. She feared ‘I would die’, because the already world famous Polanski would want to keep his crime secret by murdering her.
Valentine Monnier who now lives in New York, said she was finally speaking out after 44 years because of Polanski’s hypocrisy. The French-Polish director, who made his name with films such as ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘Chinatown’ and ‘The Pianist’, has just made ‘J’accuse’ (‘I accuse’) about Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer convicted and imprisoned on false evidence at the end of the 19th Century.
Dreyfus was accused of smuggling French Army secrets to the Germans in a notorious case of anti-Semitism, before finally being cleared.
Valentine Monnier said the alleged rape was “extremely violent”, adding: “He pummelled me until I gave in and then raped me, making me do all sorts of things.” Monnier said she recounted what had happened to her that very night to two women who were also staying in Polanski’s chalet: her best friend and another woman who became Polanski’s girlfriend for four years.
Both women were contacted by Le Parisien and confirmed Monnier’s version. Monnier, who acted in a few films in the 1980s, said she had finally decided to speak out as Polanski’s new film about an error of justice was due to come out.
Following the Harvey Weinstein scandal Monnier said she had written letters about the alleged rape to Los Angeles police and to French first lady Brigitte Macron. Polanski’s lawyer Herve Temime said the director “firmly denies all accusations of rape,” adding that the allegations “which date back 45 years have never been reported to judicial authorities”.
Polanski has also been accused of sexual assault by others. In 2010, British actress Charlotte Lewis accused him of “sexually abusing” her in 1983 when she was 16. Another woman, identified only as Robin, accused him in August 2017 of sexual assault when she was 16 in 1973.
In September 2017, former actress Renate Langer filed a new complaint alleging she had been raped by Polanski in 1972 when she was 15. Polanski’s lawyer said all the allegations were baseless. Polanski, who directed “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown”, was accused of drugging a 13-year-old girl before raping her at film star Jack Nicholson’s house in Los Angeles in 1977.
He admitted statutory rape after a number of more serious charges were dropped, and spent 48 days in custody to undergo psychiatric evaluation before being released. In 1978, convinced a judge was going to scrap his plea deal and send him to prison for decades, Polanski fled for France and has been a fugitive from the US justice system ever since despite repeated attempts to have him extradited.
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