The former child actor who says he was sexually assaulted by Asia Argento is finally going to file a police report against her, according to a new report.
Jimmy Bennett — who says Argento assaulted him in a California hotel room when he was 17 and she was 37 — made the decision to contact cops after the Italian actress’s lawyer on Tuesday publicly claimed the teen was the one who attacked her, TMZ reports.
Argento had originally denied reports that she ever had “any sexual relationship” with her underage former costar — despite acknowledging that her late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, paid Bennett $380,000 in hush money.
But texts then leaked that showed Argento admitting to having sex with him.
“The horny kid jumped me … It wasn’t raped but I was frozen. He was on top of me. After, he told me I had been his sexual fantasy since was 12,” she said to model Rain Dove in the text conversation.
On Tuesday, Argento’s lawyer Mark Heller issued a lengthy statement arguing the leaked texts prove she was the victim of assault, rather than the other way around, and that her “any sexual relationship” denial remains valid because “her relationship with Bennett was never sexual.”
Heller also claimed Bennett was “alleged to have been charged in 2014 at the Los Angeles Police Department with ‘unlawful sex with a minor,’ ‘stalking’ and ‘child pornography’ and ‘child exploitation,’” and had a history of drug use. The LA District Attorney told USA Today there’s no record of Bennett ever being charged “in connection with the referenced 2014 incident.”
The statement finally made Bennett decide to reach out to the LA County Sheriff’s Department to file a sexual assault claim, according to TMZ.