Roman Polanski

For 31 years he lived as the world’s most celebrated fugitive, feted by his peers in the film industry while on the run from American police after admitting having sex with a child.

But, it was revealed today, the past has finally caught up with Roman Polanski. The film director was arrested in Switzerland on Saturday on a decades-old warrant relating to the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

The director had travelled to Switzerland to accept a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival, the organisers of which expressed “great consternation and shock” at his detention. Esther Addley and Kate Connolly in Berlin, The Guardian.

Not “great consternation and shock” that a confessed paedophile has been a fugitive for 31-years – actually fugitive my ass – he’s been happily living in Paris – not any longer hopefully – although he’s some powerful friends.

France’s culture minister Frédéric Mitterand said he was “dumbfounded” at the arrest, adding that he “strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them”. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, “is following the case with great attention and shares the minister’s hope that the situation can be quickly resolved”, the minister said.

A statement from the Swiss Association of Directors called it a “grotesque judicial farce and a monstrous cultural scandal”, while the country’s Association of Film Directors and Script Writers called the move “a slap in the face for the entire cultural community in Switzerland”. Esther Addley and Kate Connolly in Berlin, The Guardian.

Still I don’t expect they’d feel the same if Polanski had raped and buggered their 13-year-old daughter – even after 31 years.