Roman Polanski admits the girl he raped was his “victim”

Nearly 35 years after the fact, Roman Polanski, finally concedes that drugging and raping a 13-year old girl was a mistake.

In a new documentary, Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, that premiered at the Zurich Film Festival this week, the award-winning director and bail-jumping fugitive apologized to Samantha Greimer, the woman he raped back in 1977: “She is a double victim: My victim, and a victim of the press.”

Ok, sure. Definitely true that Greimer was a victim of the press–as every woman who accuses a powerful man of rape is. In fact, she was so traumatized by the media attention that hounded her once she pressed charges against Polanski that she eventually just wanted the whole thing to go away. When Polanski was arrested in Switzerland two years ago, she said she was relieved that he ultimately wasn’t extradited back the U.S.

But I’m with Gabe: Leave the media out of it, dude. The nightmare she experienced in the court system and media circus started with you. You and your actions. And as your first public apology in decades–after fleeing the country before sentencing to avoid justice, claiming the charges were trumped up because “everyone wants to fuck young girls,” and generally acting as though somehow you’re the real victim here–it should be, well, a lot better.

Image credit: Reuters