Film director Quentin Tarantino, now embroiled in the Harvey Weinstein controversy, once claimed that Roman Polanski wasn’t a rapist because having sex with a 13-year-old isn’t rape.

Here’s an excerpt from a 2003 interview from the Howard Stern Show, in which Tarantino’s statements shocked the shock jock:

[Polanski] didn’t rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape, alright? That’s not quite the same thing.

…He had sex with a minor, alright? That’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down – it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world.

You can’t throw the word rape around is like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything people use it for, alright?

Tarantino also claimed it was consensual sex because the 13-year-old was a liar who “wanted it” because she was “down to party” and that it happened under “European morals.”

Psychologists have warned that children who have sex by age 13 “are more likely to have multiple sexual partners, engage in frequent intercourse, have unprotected sex and use drugs or alcohol before sex.”

People with mental disorders, including those suffering from emotional deregulation and lack of self-esteem – often experienced sexual abuse at an early age.

“Sexual abuse is any sexual contact between a child and an adult, or using a child for sexual purposes. It’s often done by someone the child knows and trusts,” reported a Canadian outreach center. “In British Columbia, a child is anyone under the age of 19.”

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