Quentin Tarantino once said Roman Polanski's 13-year-old sexual assault victim 'wanted to have it'

Quentin Tarantino once defended Roman Polanski's sexual assault of a 13-year-old in an interview with Howard Stern - saying the victim was a "party girl" who "wanted to have it."

Audio footage of a 2013 interview resurfaced via Jezebel, where Stern, co-host Robin Quivers and Tarantino go head to head on their thoughts about Roman Polanski - who pleaded guilty to engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in 1977.

A grand jury had originally charged him with drugging and raping the youngster, before he agreed to the plea deal and fled to Europe. He is currently living in Poland.

In the radio interview, the Kill Bill director is asked about his joy about Polanski winning an Oscar for The Pianist in 2003.

Quivers asks,“What’s so great about a rapist being given Hollywood’s highest honour?” to which he responds, “I don’t consider him a rapist.”

Tarantino vehemently defends his position saying, "He didn’t rape a 13-year-old - it was statutory rape. He had sex with a minor - that’s not rape. To me when you use the word rape, it’s one of the most violent crimes in the world."

The actor/director takes things a step further comparing to racism saying, "Throwing the word rape around is like throwing the word racist around - it just doesn’t apply to everything people use it for. He was guilty of having sex with a minor" to which Quivers responds "which she didn't want to have."

Tarantino then responded, “No that was not the case at all - she wanted to have it. She dated the guy.”

He then says it's a difference in American vs. European morals.

"Look, she was down with it," he explains. "She’s talked about it. She’s an adult now. I’m right. She said, 'He didn’t really do anything to me - it was the technicality.'"

Tarantino then disqualified the victim's stance further by saying, "Her mom is now on her so now she has to say 'he did this yeah he did that'."

Later on, Tarantino refers to Polanski’s story and says, “His version seems more likely.”

“She was down to party with Roman,” adds Tarantino, but Quivers points out, "She does not make the decisions."

But even after Stern says, “I will never let [Roman] come back into this country", Tarantino continued to argue his case, saying, “I don’t believe it’s rape - I believe it’s against the law. It’s not rape for these 13-year-old party girls."

He then makes a dig at Stern for not seeing things his way saying, "When did you turn into Bill O’Reilly?"

The reappearance of this audio comes just days after Kill Bill actress Uma Thurman spoke to the New York Times about her experiences with Harvey Weinstein and sexual assault and her near-death experience on the set of Kill Bill under Tarantino's watch.

On Monday, Thurman posted a video to Instagram of an almost fatal car crash - a scene in Kill Bill that Tarantino insisted she drive herself instead of using a stunt double.

Thurman wasn't comfortable with this, but ultimately felt she had no choice.

She ended up losing control of the wheel and crashing into a palm tree.

For 15 years she wasn't able to get a hold of the footage, but Tarantino eventually helped her find it.

In a statement to Deadline he said, "Me and Uma had our issues about the crash. She blamed me for the crash and she had a right to blame me for the crash. I didn’t mean to do it. I talked her into getting in the car, I assured her the road was safe. And it wasn’t. The car might even have been dubious too even if I didn’t know that then. We had our issues about it."

Harvey Weinstein has denied sexually assaulting Thurman.