A jury convicts filmmaker Paul Haggis, writer and director of 'Crash', of rape

Film director Paul Haggi, in Rome. TIZIANA FABI (AFP)

The Me Too movement encouraged many women to report cases of sexual abuse that had occurred in the past and had gone unpunished.

In the heat of it, a publicist denounced the Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggins for abuse and rape in the apartment of the writer and director in Manhattan (New York) in 2013. This Thursday, a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to pay the victim a minimum of 7.5 million dollars.

Due to the time that has elapsed, in many cases of abuse and violation there was no conclusive evidence to support a criminal charge.

In some cases, as in this one, the victims opted for the civil route.

Haggis, 69, must pay those 7.5 million dollars as compensation to Haleigh Breest, 36, who was 26 when the events occurred.

In addition, the jury will later set an additional amount for punitive damages.

Haggis won two Oscars in 2006 for his film

for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

He was also the screenwriter for

, and

.

As a director he left his signature on the feature film

or on the miniseries

Haleigh denounced him in December 2017 through a civil lawsuit before a New York court.

Four other women who have participated in the trial testified that Haggis had also abused them to varying degrees, including one who said she had been raped by the screenwriter in the 1990s. Last June, he was arrested in southern Italy on charges of sexually abusing a woman for two days.

He remained in seclusion in a hotel for two weeks until a judge allowed him to leave.

The investigation of that case is still ongoing.

Messages

According to the publicist's complaint, after attending the premiere of the movie

Haggis offered her a ride home.

She then told him to have a drink before her and pressured her to go to his house instead of a public establishment.

As she testified in court, the woman warned her: "Just so you know, I'm not going to sleep in Soho tonight," the place where her apartment was.

However, once there, Haggis became violent, kissing her, ripping off her stockings, forcing her to perform oral sex and raping her.

She fell asleep afterwards and woke up there the next morning.

After six hours of deliberation, the jury has given credibility to the victim's story with the vote of five of its six members.

Communications after the day of the rape were shown during the trial.

Haleigh wrote to a friend that the filmmaker had been "tough and aggressive" despite her denial.

“I thought he was just going to take me home.

How naive,” she wrote to a friend.

Testifying, she told the jury that she had felt "trapped like an animal."

Haggis denied the accusations, said the relationship was consensual, accused Breest of having demanded money in exchange for withdrawing them and sued her, although her case has been rejected.

He also held the thesis that it was all a conspiracy by the Church of Scientology in revenge for having withdrawn from it.

The filmmaker, however, has shown contradictions and changes of version.

He first said that he had not had sexual relations with the publicist, then that he did not remember having them and then that she was "passionate" in her bed.

The filmmaker even acknowledged that when he kissed her, she told him: "No, I shouldn't", but he took it as a "mocking" behavior, "a bit like Betty Boop", the first female cartoon character who behaved sensually .

And that since she received “mixing signals” he told her that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to.

"He never gave me any indication that it wasn't consensual," he testified at trial.

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América

and receive all the key information on current affairs in the region