Roman Polanski wins libel case against Vanity Fair

Polish born French film director Roman Polanski gestures at a news conference in Budapest in March. File picture / Reuters

LONDON - Roman Polanski won his libel case against Vanity Fair, ending a trial in which he gave video evidence from Paris to avoid extradition to America where he is wanted for having sex with a girl aged 13.

The film director was awarded £50,000 ($NZ127,000) in damages. He went to court in London to sue the magazine's publishers over an article in July 2002 alleging he had tried to seduce a woman in a New York restaurant while on his way to his slain wife's funeral in August 1969.

Vanity Fair had conceded the article was inaccurate, saying the incident actually took place several weeks after Sharon Tate's murder by followers of the Charles Manson clan, but had maintained the gist of the contested passage in the article was true.

- REUTERS