While Roman Polanski sits in a Swiss jail awaiting extradition to the US, the sister of his late wife Sharon Tate today said the sex act on a 13 year-old to which he plead guilty 31 years ago was consensual and that he will not get a fair trial in the US.
Speaking on NBC's Today Show, Debra Tate defended the Oscar-winning director.
"There's rape and then there's rape," she said. "It was determined that Roman did not forcibly have sex with this woman. It was a consensual matter."
Leaving aside the principle that under California law, a 13 year-old girl is legally incapable of consenting to sex, Tate said that discussions with Los Angeles prosecutors led her to believe Polanski would not get a fair trial there.
"I do believe that our system is extremely broken on [multiple] levels," she said.
She said that several years ago she had sought to persuade Polanksi to return and face justice.
"I was under the impression that there was misconduct in the political genre itself and that based on that perhaps he could get a fair trial here," she said. "Since then, speaking with the district attorney's office, I agree that Roman could not necessarily be dealt with in a fair manner here in the US. I think that this matter better be served in France."
Tate is the sister of Sharon Tate, Polanski's wife who was murdered by followers of Charles Manson in 1969.
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