Dylan Farrow molestation account a false memory, says Woody Allen attorney

An attorney for filmmaker Woody Allen said Tuesday that while Dylan Farrow sincerely believes her adoptive father molested her as a child, that this was a false memory implanted by her mother.

«In my view, she’s not lying,» Elkan Abramowitz told Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s «Today.» «I think she truly believes this happened. That’s what the vice of this is. When you implant a story in a fragile 7-year-old’s mind, it stays there forever. It never goes away.»

Abramowitz — responding to Farrow’s open letter Saturday reviving 1993 molestation accusations that Allen has always denied — said his client’s reaction «is one of overwhelming sadness because of what has happened to Dylan.» The lawyer said Dylan Farrow — now married and living under another name — is «a pawn in a huge fight between» Allen and his former companion, actress and humanitarian Mia Farrow.

When Guthrie noted that the judge in a related custody case had found evidence of inappropriate behavior by Allen, Abramowitz shot back, «I say that the judge was wrong, that the judge favored Mia Farrow for a variety of reasons.» He blamed the accusations’ revival on «a continuation of Mia Farrow’s desire to hurt Woody Allen.»

Before the live program aired, Mia Farrow tweeted: «I love my daughter. I will always protect her. A lot of ugliness is going to be aimed at me. But this is not about me, it’s about her truth.»

Farrow has not publicly responded to Abramowitz’s assertions.