Los Angeles Sep 5 (IANS) Actress Asia Argento who has been accused of sexually assaulting musician Jimmy Bennett has claimed that it was Bennett who sexually assaulted her when he was 17 years old.
Argento s lawyer Mark Jay Heller told TMZ that Bennett had "sexually attacked" her at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey California in 2013 and he was lucky she decided not to prosecute him.
The allegations first surfaced last month when it was revealed that Argento had secretly paid off Bennet after he accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17.
Argento s beau - the late Anthony Bourdain - arranged to pay Bennett a $380 000 in an out-of-court settlement in order to protect her according to her attorney.
Heller said that the "Land of the Dead" star has refused to pay Bennett the balance of the settlement - $130 000 - because the arrangement was made by Bourdain before he took his own life in June.
The pair met in 2004 when Argento cast Bennett to play her son in "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things".

--IANS sim/rb/sed