Sep 29, 2009, 12:34 GMT
The woman raped by Roman Polanski says he "took her innocence".
Arrested: A file picture dated 20 October 2005 of French director Roman Polanski during a press presentation of his film 'Oliver Twist' in Rome. EPA/FRANCESCA RUGGIERI
Samantha Geimer - known as Samantha Gailey when the film director plied her with champagne and Quaaludes before raping her when she was just 13 - says the filmmaker knew what he did was "wrong".
The 45-year-old former model said in an interview in 2005: "What he did to me was wrong and he knows it was wrong, I'm still living with it today. He took sex from me and at the same time my innocence.
"I don't think for one moment it had occurred to him that someone would not want sex with him. He is a very arrogant, self-important, creepy old man."
But by 2005, Samantha had decided to stop obsessing over the attack that ruined her childhood in 1977.
She explained: "Looking back, there can be no question that he did something awful but I don't want to feel bad about it anymore. It was a terrible thing to do to a young girl. But it was also many years ago.
"And, honestly, the publicity surrounding it was so traumatic that what he did to me seemed to pale in comparison."
Meanwhile, Roman's wife, actress Emmanuelle Seigner, has expressed her "outrage" at her husband's arrest in Zurich, Switzerland.
She said: "We are demanding that he be freed. Then we will fight extradition."
Emmanuelle is now compiling a petition calling for Roman's release.
He is facing extradition to the US to face the charges he fled to France to escape in 1978.
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