An Oscar-winning composer faces multiple rape charges after allegedly using the award and the allure of movie stardom to tempt young women to his casting couch.

Joseph Brooks, 71, turned himself in to police in New York on Tuesday accused of raping 11 women — including an American Idol contestant.

Mr Brooks, who wrote and directed the 1977 film You Light Up My Life, about a comedian who has a one-night stand with a director and which won an Oscar for Best Song, faces up to 25 years in jail if convicted of first-degree rape.

The composer, who had a stroke in April last year, looked disoriented as he appeared in court in handcuffs and entered a not-guilty plea.

He was released on $250,000 (£150,000) bail. His lawyer called the charges “ridiculous”. Prosecutors allege that Mr Brooks posted adverts on the internet site Craigslist in which he offered to turn young women into film stars.

The adverts said that an “Oscar Award-winning composer” was searching for a “new face” — a beautiful “young girl between 18 to 22”. “He intimidated them. They were frightened and suddenly found themselves in his apartment for different purposes than they had anticipated," Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, said.

Most of the women targeted came from Washington state and Oregon in America’s Pacific northwest, and would have been tired by the time that they arrived to meet Mr Brooks at his flat on East 63rd Street in New York.

Mr Brooks allegedly got his female personal assistant, Shawni Lucier, 41, who comes from Washington state, to help pick his victims.

When the young women replied to the adverts Ms Lucier, who was charged as an accomplice, would allegedly reassure their parents, make their travel arrangements and even drive them to Mr Brooks’ apartment.

Once the women were inside, Mr Brooks allegedly told them to audition for the role of a prostitute in a scene that required them to drink a lot of wine.

“The part called for them to drink the wine in a seductive manner. He told them to be very comfortable with their bodies, to drink the wine and feel sexy about themselves as they became more and more intoxicated," Adam Lamboy, of the Manhattan Special Victims Squad, said.

Mr Brooks pushed his victims to take off their clothes on his casting couch. If they resisted, he brought out his Oscar statuette and put it in their hands, police said.

“The Oscar was used as a prop,” Lieutenant Amboy said. Mr Brooks allegedly told the young women: “This could be you holding the Oscar. I could make you a star.” Police became aware of the alleged attacks when two women came forward last year.

Prosecutors suspect that the attacks may date back as far as 1970 but cannot press charges because of the statute of limitations.

“I feel like a weight has been lifted,” Loretta Spruell, 23, who once tried out for American Idol, told the New York Daily News. “I’m glad he is going to be held accountable for all the lives he’s destroyed and not hurt anyone else.”

Investigators say that they found an e-mail from Mr Brooks’ son on his computer, breaking off relations with his father, who has been married four times but is now single.

At the end of the e-mail the son allegedly said that his father’s “predatory” behaviour disgusted him. He concluded: “You made your bed and now you must sleep in it.”

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