Mia Farrow today spoke of the "utter sense of loss, of despair and bewilderment" suffered by her friend, the film director Roman Polanski, following the brutal murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, in 1969.

The star of Rosemary's Baby told the high court Polanski could speak of nothing else when they met for dinner at the fashionable New York restaurant, Elaine's, a few weeks after the murder, and that he became so upset they had to leave the restaurant before their food arrived.

She admitted she could not be sure of the exact date of their meeting or of who arrived first, how they left, or whether there were other people at their table. But she said her meeting with Polanski was "scalded on my mind".

"Of this I can be sure, of his frame of mind when we were there, of his utter sense of loss, of despair and bewilderment and shock and love, a love he had lost," she said as she gave evidence in Polanski's libel case against Vanity Fair magazine.

The film director is suing over an allegation in the July 2002 issue that he made sexual advances to a Swedish woman in Elaine's on the way to his wife's funeral, and that he promised to turn her into "another Sharon Tate".

The magazine's publisher, Condé Nast, has conceded that Polanski did not go to New York on his way to Tate's funeral in Los Angeles, but maintains the incident did take place.

But giving evidence in court today, Farrow said that Polanski had "brushed off" two women who tried to flirt with him as they waited at the bar for their table.

"He paid no attention because we hadn't seen each other since Sharon's murder and that was so huge. I think I might have been crying and was hugging him and he just brushed them off," said Farrow.

Later, she said, Polanski became so upset that they were forced to leave the restaurant and go for a walk.

"We just started walking around and around the block and he told me about visiting the house where Sharon had been killed and the others and a little kitten that Sharon had and the kitten was still there in the blood," she said.

"You can't believe how the atmosphere was in that time of Sharon's death - the brutality of these unsolved murders - it filled everyone."

Asked by John Kelsey-Fry, for Polanski, whether the director of Tess and Rosemary's Baby had behaved inappropriately in any way with anybody on the night in question, Farrow replied: "No."

Under cross-examination by Tom Shields, for Condé Nast, Farrow admitted she could not be sure whether she and her then boyfriend, Andre Previn, had taken Polanksi back to his hotel after dinner.

But she said she was sure she would not have left him alone in the restaurant.

"Of this I can be sure. I would not have left him in Elaine's unattended without trusted friends ... I wouldn't have left him there alone, I wouldn't have. He was in really bad shape at that time," she said.

Asked if she had read about Polanski having casual sex with other women within a month of his wife's death, Farrow said: "I feel there's a big distinction - for men maybe - between relationships and having sex.

"I could never pass judgment if someone in that frame of mind seeks comfort in any way that couldn't harm anyone. I don't see that as a disrespect of Sharon. If he says he did, I don't doubt it, but it would in no way detract from his feelings for Sharon. I would swear that on a stack of bibles."

Tate's sister, Debra, described how Polanski was "an absolute wreck" when she spoke to him on the phone after the murder.

"He was an absolute wreck, sobbing, weak in voice, and I'm sure, weak in body on the other side of the telephone," she told the court.

When he arrived in Los Angeles from London, where he had been working, Polanski was "heavily sedated to the point where he couldn't walk without assistance" Ms Tate said.

"I would have been very frightful to think of what condition he would have been in had he not been sedated at the time."

Andrew Braunsberg, a film producer who worked with Polanski, was with the director when he received the news of his wife's murder.

Giving evidence today Mr Braunsberg said Polanski "literally unravelled in front of my eyes".

"He disintegrated... He was weeping and crying and banging his head against a brick wall. It was terrifying," said Mr Braunsberg.

The film producer said he had accompanied Polanski to Los Angeles, where they were whisked away from the airport by police and given bodyguards.

He said they had been unable to stay in a hotel because of fears that the murderer might strike again, and stayed instead at Paramount Studios. Polanski, he said, was "in a state of complete shock and breakdown".

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