A California artist has started a petition to get the Polish director booted from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Marianne Barnard says Roman Polanski “sexually molested” her when she was 10 years old. In her Care 2 petition, Barnard says the controversial director molested her after she was photographed by him at Will Rogers State Beach in Southern California. She says the director asked her to take off her bikini top then bottoms before he molested her.
Barnard also claims her mother, who was present at the photo shoot, arranged the ordeal. The artist believed her mother was paid to walk away from the incident so she could pay for a Ph.D. saying:
“After it happened, I didn’t say anything to anyone. I wish that I had been brave enough to speak out, tell a friend, their parent or even a teacher. Maybe if I had, the other girls wouldn’t have been molested by Polanski (a convicted statutory rapist) also. That’s a terrible heartache to carry.”
Barnard asked those online to sign her petition to have Polanski’s board membership revoked from the Academy. As of Saturday afternoon, more than 12,500 people have signed the petition.
small consequence for him considering his crimes and great amount of harm he has caused #SilenceIsTheEnemy #MeToo https://t.co/bZXtQuhs1Y
— Marianne Barnard (M) (@Marianne_M_B) October 20, 2017
Barnard says the petition was motivated by last weeks decision by the Academy to expel Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein from the board following a string of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against the movie mogul.
Barnard wrote:
“It is a small consequence for him considering his crimes and the great amount of harm he has caused me and his other victims.”
Barnard listed the four other women who have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against the contentious director.
Barnard wrote:
“We’ve stayed silent until now. We feared. But, we can no longer be silent and allow this man who sexually assaulted little girls to enjoy fame, recognition or an honored place in history.”
Barnard is the latest woman to come forward with allegations against Polanski, the Oscar-winning director. Renate Langer, a German woman, earlier this month said she was assaulted by Polanski when she was a teenager in 1972.
In August, another woman, who identified herself as Robin, said the director sexually victimized her when she was 16 in in 1973.
Polanski, now 84, served 42 days in prison before he fled to France from the U.S. after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor in California. His victim, Samantha Geimer, was 13 at the time.
Geimer says Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized her at “Chinatown” actor Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood Hills home back in 1977.
This past summer, Geimer asked a Los Angeles judge to drop Polanski’s 40 year old case, who can only travel between France, Switzerland and Poland.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
