Polanski enjoys Montreux jazz festival after escaping child-sex charges

Free to roam: A newly-released Roman Polanski arrives at the Montreux Jazz Festival tonight

Shamed film director Roman Polanski made his first public appearance tonight after escaping extradition to the U.S. to face child-sex charges

Free after nine months of house arrest, the director arrived at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

Polanski, 76, pulled up at the festival in an SUV with tinted windows. He climbed out of the car running his fingers through his hair and was then was escorted into an elevator as security personnel surrounded him.





Support: Polanksi's wife, French actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, performing at Montreux



Doing time: Polanski walking on the balcony of his mountain chalet under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland last month


Polanski's wife, actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, 44, performed at the festival just after her notorious husband arrived.

'That was the theme to '"Rosemary's Baby,"' she said after the first song, a reference to Polanski's famous 1968 film.

Polanski served 42 days in detention in September 1977 in the psychiatric unit of a Californian prison after pleading guilty to having sex with 13-year- old Samantha Geimer, a model he took for a photo shoot in a hot tub at Jack Nicholson's Hollywood house.

He was to receive further sentencing in the US, but fled to Europe first, spending nine months in prison and under house arrest in Switzerland while the two countries wrangled over his extradition.

In an interview on with Swiss television tonight, Polanski thanked 'the millions of people who kept sending me messages of support during those nine long months.'

He added: 'I would also certainly thank my wife Emmanuelle (and) my children, without whom I would have never been able to hold onto my dignity and perseverance. For the moment, I'm happy to be free and to be able to do the things I was kept from doing'.

He said his son Elvis, 10, cut off the electronic bracelet that Swiss authorities had made him wear while he was under house arrest.

'They told me to throw it away, that's it,' the director said of the Swiss. His son 'couldn't stand it anymore,' so he was given permission to personally remove the tracking device.

Indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, Polanski has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.

He still faces an Interpol warrant in effect for 188 countries for the 1977 child sex case.

Polanski, whose hits include Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist, completed his latest film The Ghost, based on a Robert Harris's best-seller, while under arrest in Switzerland.

Following his release this week, there is no chance of Polanski ever entering Britain again.

Under the terms of an Anglo-American extradition treaty, Polanski would be arrested and sent back to the U.S. the moment he landed in the UK.

Actress claims Roman Polanski sexually abused her 'in the worst possible way' when she was 16

Famous role: Lewis with Eddie Murphy in the 1986 film The Golden Child. She also starred in Polanski's film Pirates in the same year

News conference: Lewis, right, and her attorney Gloria Allred have revealed the actress has spoken to police over the alleged incident, dating back to the 1980s

 House arrest: Fugitive director Roman Polanski is fighting extradition to the U.S. from his Swiss home
Fresh claim: London actress Charlotte Lewis at a press conference in LA, where she alleges she was sexually abused by Polanski when she was 16

Los Angeles County prosecutors have met with a British actress who claims she was sexually abused by director Roman Polanski in his Paris apartment when she was 16 - years before she appeared in one of his movies.

Charlotte Lewis, 42, said yesterday that the filmmaker abused her 'in the worst possible way' sometime in the 1980s.
Lewis provided no evidence to support her claims and her attorney, Gloria Allred, did not permit her to answer questions during a news conference in her office.

However, Allred said the woman provided evidence to a police detective and officials from the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. She refused to provide specifics and also refused to answer questions about whether her client's allegations involved drugs or rape.



Police spokesman Richard French confirmed: 'Our detectives did conduct the interview but the department has not begun an investigation.'

It was unclear what year the alleged assault took place.

The actress, best known for her role in the 1986 film The Golden Child with Eddie Murphy, said: 'He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behavior ever since it occurred.'

Reading from a prepared statement, she added: 'All I want is justice.'

Allred said that, to her knowledge, no criminal complaint or lawsuit was made in France over the alleged assault.

The duty officer for the French Justice Ministry said last night that he was not aware whether the British actress had filed a complaint in France about her allegation.
A statement released by Polanski's U.S. legal team said his attorneys had no information about the allegations that were made at the press conference 'but we do know that our district attorney continues to refuse to provide the Swiss government with accurate and complete information relevant to the extradition issue'.

Polanski, the Oscar-winning director of Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist, is under house arrest at his Swiss chateau in connection with a 33-year-old case.

He was accused of drugging a 13-year-old girl with champagne and part of Quaalude and raping her at Jack Nicholson's house in Los Angeles in 1977.
He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse but fled to France before sentencing and remained a fugitive until his arrest on September 26 on a U.S. warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival.

Ms Lewis said she came forward because she heard that Polanski was fighting extradition to the United States and 'that his legal team is portraying his previous offense against a minor as an isolated instance'.

Allred said she doesn't plan any legal action right now, such as a lawsuit, but believes the allegations would be relevant when Polanski is sentenced.

Her client is ready to testify if necessary, she said.

'If the judge believes these claims, it could certainly have an impact on the court's decision,' she said.

Lewis played a role in Polanski's film Pirates, released in the same year as The Golden Child.

She has gone on to star in smaller films an TV series, and in 1993 posed for Playboy magazine.