Filmmaker Paul Haggis, accused of rape, will have to pay his victim $ 7.5 million

Oscar-winning Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis was found Thursday, November 10, by a civil court in New York, responsible for the rape of an advertising agent in 2013, to whom he will have to pay 7.5 million dollars.

The director of

("Collision") and screenwriter of

and

, 69, was tried by a civil jury of the Supreme Court of New York, at the end of a trial for liability which began on October 19.

He has been accused since December 2017 by an advertising agent, Haleigh Breest, working in the cinema, of having raped her in January 2013, when she was 26 years old.

In the process, in the midst of a #MeToo wave of freedom of speech on sexual violence and sexism against women, the filmmaker had been targeted by accusations of sexual assault by three other women.

But he appeared in New York only for the facts denounced by Haleigh Breest, which the filmmaker has always denied.

He is not being prosecuted for these rape charges.

More recently, last June, Paul Haggis was arrested in southern Italy, again on suspicion of sexual assault against a young woman, facts which he has again denied.

During the civil trial, the filmmaker's lawyers suggested on Wednesday before the popular jury of the New York court that Haleigh Breest's complaint had been guided by the Church of Scientology, with which Paul Haggis had broken up and which he criticized. from.

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to go to court to seek justice and establish accountability, and that the jury decided to follow the facts and believe me.

»

The Complainant, Haleigh Breest

A thesis swept away by the plaintiff's lawyers.

In her complaint, Haleigh Breest said that on the evening of January 31, 2013, after a film screening in Manhattan, the director had insisted that she come and have a drink at his house, when she said she preferred to go out to a bar.

Once in her apartment, Paul Haggis had made many advances to her before forcing her to perform oral sex and then raping her again.

, rejoiced the plaintiff Haleigh Breest in a statement.

Known for being one of the creators of the

series , Paul Haggis received the Oscars for best picture and best original screenplay in 2006 for

(“Collision”).

He was also the screenwriter for Clint Eastwood's

,

and

, as well as episodes of the James Bond saga,

and

.