Third woman accuses Roman Polanski of sexual assault on a minor

'The reason, with this exception, that I kept it to myself is that I didn’t want my father to do something that might cause him to go to prison for the rest of his life'

Roman Polanski fled the US in 1978 (Getty Images)

A third woman has come forward to accuse film director Roman Polanski of sexually assaulting her in the 1970s – 40-years after he went on the run for raping another girl.

Identified only as Robin, the woman told a Los Angeles news conference that she had been “sexually victimised” in 1973, when she was 16-years-old.

Reading from a prepared statement, she said she had told a friend about the assault on the day after it happened.

She added: “The reason, with this exception, that I kept it to myself is that I didn’t want my father to do something that might cause him to go to prison for the rest of his life.”

She said she had decided to come forward because she was “infuriated” that a statutory rape case against Polanski could be dropped, after his victim asked a Los Angeles court to end it.

The Rosemary’s Baby director fled the US in 1978 after admitting to the statutory rape of Samantha Geimer, who was 13 at the time.

Now 83, he had previously spent 48-days in custody to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before being released.

Court documents filed by his lawyer Harland Braun maintained that Polanski was promised that would be the only time he would serve by the judge overseeing the case.

But after he became convinced that the plea deal would be scrapped, the Oscar winning director fled to France.

A fugitive since then, he has refused to return to the US without assurances that he would not serve any additional prison time.

Polanski who is married to the French actor Emmanuelle Seigner, with whom he has two children, remains a citizen of Poland and France.

Ms Geimer told the court in June, that she had forgiven the filmmaker for the assault and wanted closure for herself and her family.

Robin, who appeared with her lawyer Gloria Allred in Los Angeles, cannot sue Polanski in a criminal court because the statute of limitation has passed.

But she could testify against him in the case involving Ms Geimer, who is not the only woman to accuse him of sexually assaulting her.

In 2010 British actress Charlotte Lewis, who was also represented by Ms Allred, claimed the directore “forced himself” on her in Paris in 1983, when she was 16 years old.