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Film director Paul Haggis, who was arrested on June 19 on charges that he sexually assaulted an English woman in Puglia, Italy, has given his first interview since his arrest. In the interview with La Repubblica, Haggis admits that he made several bad decisions with regard to his brief affair with his accuser, but assault was not one of them.

“My first mistake was allowing someone who I hardly knew to come and visit me,” Haggis stated. “It was foolish. The second mistake was on the last morning after an incident occurred that I personally found particularly unpleasant, I decided to end this situation; I took this person to the airport hours before her flight. I’m upset with myself for these errors in judgment but cannot comprehend that they resulted in false and damaging accusations against me.”

Haggis, who was in Italy for a film festival, did not elaborate on the “particularly unpleasant” incident that occurred, nor did the newspaper press him for more information.

This is the second time Haggis has been accused of sexual misconduct. A previous suit filed against him in the U.S., but in speaking about that case, Haggis said, “Not one woman has ever gone to the police or a prosecutor with a complaint about me, in any country. No, I most certainly don’t have a problem with women… The woman in the United States did not make a criminal complaint against me; she demanded nine million dollars from me to keep silent, about a consensual one-night encounter we had five years earlier.”

“Being accused of sexual violence, something that I did not do, was devastating and something I hope no innocent person will ever experience,” Haggis told the paper. Haggis was under house arrest for two weeks while the case was being investigated. That order has been lifted though he is still being held in the country while the courts decide whether or not to bring the case to trial.