Paul Thomas: Polanski seems to have had good reason not to trust the system

Back in 1968, Mick Jagger enthused on Stray Cat Blues, the Rolling Stones' ode to the joy of jailbait sex: "I can see that you're 15 years old ... but I don't want your ID."

Performing the track live at Madison Square Garden, Jagger reduced the nymphet's age to 13, perhaps in sly homage to Jerry Lee Lewis who married his 13-year-old first cousin once removed.

Ironically - and this subject is replete with irony, some exceedingly bitter - Stones bassist Bill Wyman later found himself in hot water for having begun a relationship with a model when she was 13.

Jagger's message was: "It's no hanging matter; it's no capital crime."

That's little consolation to film director Roman Polanski, now languishing in a Swiss jail ahead of extradition proceedings which could see him deported to the US for having had unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Polanski's arrest on a long-standing US warrant has sparked a diplomatic row between France and America and a furious debate between those who regard it as persecution and those who believe it upholds the principle that no one is above the law.

Polanski's defenders argue that:

He's suffered enough - his mother perished at Auschwitz; his first wife Sharon Tate and their unborn child were butchered by the Manson Family; he hasn't been able to work in Hollywood for three decades.

He's a great artist - last month the Independent's film critic rated his 1974 noir classic Chinatown the 10th best movie of all time. (Polanski himself appears as the hood who carves Jack Nicholson a third nostril.)

The victim has forgiven him.

It was a long time ago and Polanski's no spring chicken. (He's 76.)

Cynics have questioned why the Swiss chose to act now given that Polanski has a house in Gstaad and has been entering Switzerland unmolested, so to speak, for some time. They speculate that it might be a sop to American anger over the Swiss bank UBS whose US subsidiary has enabled thousands of Americans to evade tax by hiding their funds offshore.

Those who want Polanski called to account make the point that just as his behaviour doesn't diminish his art, as his art doesn't excuse his behaviour. They also cite, perhaps insensitively, the ongoing pursuit of Nazi war criminals to support their argument that the passage of time is irrelevant.

Interestingly, the wishes of the victim, who has accepted a large cash settlement and repeatedly called for the matter to be laid to rest, are deemed irrelevant. Only weeks ago there was strident condemnation of the release of the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds, against the express wishes of the victims' families.

In this instance the consequences for the victim will be evident: a media feeding frenzy that will leave as much of her blood in the water as Polanski's.

Since Polanski's arrest it has been widely asserted that he raped the girl after plying her with drugs and alcohol. In fact, those charges were dropped during a plea bargaining negotiation which ended with him admitting unlawful sexual intercourse.

Plea bargaining is a murky process, the aim of which isn't necessarily to establish the truth and ensure justice is done. It's possible the Los Angeles District Attorney wanted to make sure they nailed Polanski for something, rather than risk him getting off scot-free after a media circus court case in which the girl could be savaged in the witness box.

It's possible the DA knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of making the original charges stick but figured he could bluff his way to a celebrity scalp. It's possible Polanski did all of the above but had a smart lawyer, or was scared out of his wits and opted for the lesser of two evils. Nothing was ever tested in court.

Polanski fled before sentencing, choosing the fugitive existence, albeit a well-rewarded and feted one. Did he have cause to distrust the system? He'd been in London when his wife was murdered but, according to a friend who accompanied him, was questioned relentlessly by detectives on the flight home and arrived in LA convinced he was a suspect.

He initially suspected John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas who'd recently threatened him with a meat cleaver after discovering that Polanski had slept with his wife. Last month Phillips' daughter Mackenzie published a book claiming that her father, who died in 2001, had raped her when she was 18, then coerced her into a decade-long incestuous affair. Not everyone believed her.