A judge in the US has rejected an attempt from Oscar winning film director Roman Polanski to end his long-running child sex abuse case.
Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13 year old minor in 1977 and fled the US ahead on the eve of his sentencing.
Lawyers for the 83-year-old Polish national, who now lives in France, said he was willing to return to America after nearly 40 years on the run if he was assured he would not serve more jail time. However, the judge ruled that he was not entitled to any special treatment.
At a hearing before Judge Scott Gordon last month, prosecutors urged Polanski to return to the US for sentencing and said he should not receive special treatment as a “wealthy celebrity”.
However the request was denied after the judge ruled that his lawyers had failed to present "sufficient credible, admissible evidence or legal arguments" to support their case.
Polanski is best known for the films Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist, for which he won a Best Director Oscar. However he failed to travel to Los Angeles in 2003 to collect his academy award due to the ongoing legal uncertainty.
Back in December Poland's Supreme Court rejected a bid to extradite him to the United States.
