British actress who accuses Roman Polanski of raping her aged 16 ‘sold her story about life as a 14-year-old prostitute to a newspaper for £30,000’

A British actress who accuses Roman Polanski of raping her sold a story about her life as a 14-year-old prostitute for £30,000, a French court has heard.

The interview of Charlotte Lewis, now 56, also included lurid details of how she romantically pursued the film director with the intention of becoming his mistress.

The will is key evidence in a defamation trial against 90-year-old Polanski, who denies assaulting Ms Lewis when she was 16 in 1986.

His lawyers told the Paris criminal court that Ms Lewis never reported the attack to police.

Instead, she waited until 2010, when she made the claim during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival.

Roman Polanski (photo, right, in 1986) is being sued by Charlotte Lewis for libel in France

Lewis sold her story to the now defunct News of the World for £30,000 in 1999, with journalist Stuart White (pictured) taking on the story.

When Polanski defended herself in a Paris Match article in 2019 by portraying Lewis as a liar and a former child prostitute, she sued him for defamation.

Referring to the 1999 interview she sold to the now defunct News of the World for £30,000, she told the court in Paris: ‘People believed what the articles said about me. They called me a prostitute.”

But Stuart White, the British journalist who wrote the article, said he stood by its accuracy.

Mr White, 77, told the court it was written with Ms Lewis’s full cooperation, and told the story of how she “became a high-end call girl” at the age of 14.

Mr White said: ‘Ms Lewis and I have discussed at length how best to reveal and record these new revelations.

“Our intention, as I told her, was to be as compassionate as possible, and that I would write the story accordingly.”

Mr White said: ‘I remember her being pleased with the way I presented the story, making it clear that she had been the victim of predators.’

In 2019, Ms Lewis asked Mr White to make an affidavit saying he had made up the prostitute story, but he refused.

Mr. White recalled saying, “Charlotte, if you think we made this story up, why did you wait 20 years to complain?

“You could have sued the News of the World the following week.”

Ms Lewis responded that she had not read the article until 10 years later – something Mr White described as “absurd and unbelievable”.

Mr White was the only witness called by the defense in the one-day defamation trial, which ended around midnight on Tuesday.

Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977

In 2019, Lewis asked White to make an affidavit saying he had made up the prostitute story, but he refused.

It was the first time that Polanski, a married father of two, had been brought to trial since he ran away from America in 1977.

It was the first time Polanski, a married father of two, had appeared in court since fleeing America in 1977 after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Despite this, he stayed away from court, instead leaving his lawyers to defend him against claims he vehemently denies.

Polanski – whose hit films include Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist – used the 2019 Paris March interview to describe the rape claim as a “horrific lie.”

He also produced a copy of the News of the World article, in which Mrs Lewis was quoted as saying: ‘I was fascinated by him and I wanted to be his lover.’

Polanski remains a fugitive from US justice after having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in Hollywood in 1977 after giving her champagne.

He then fled to his home country France, which has no extradition treaty with the US.

He is now married to actress Emmanuelle Seigner, 58, with whom he has two children who are now actors: Morgane Polanski, 31, and Elvis Polanski, 26.

The defamation trial against Polanski has now concluded and judgment will be handed down on May 14.