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The allegations about Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator just keep coming, with Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Asia Argento and Rosanna Arquette the latest actresses to come forward about their disturbing encounters with the movie exec.

Now, speaking anonymously, The Weinstein Company staff have told The New Yorker about the strategies Weinstein used to prey on vulnerable women.

As more and more accounts of Weinstein’s abuse are made public, there’s a clear pattern – and this was apparently no accident but deliberate, predatory behaviour.

One technique he used to get women alone was the “honeypot” strategy, as one former staffer called it – setting up a meeting with a young actress and a female staff member of the company, who would exit the meeting shortly after it started.

“It almost felt like the executive or assistant was made to be a honeypot to lure these women in, to make them feel safe,” the staffer said.

“Then he would dismiss the executive or the assistant, and then these women were alone with him. And that did not feel like it was appropriate behavior or safe behavior.”

A male staffer expressed his regret over the ‘honeypot’ meetings.

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“You just feel terrible because you could tell this girl, very young, not from our country, was now in a room waiting for him to come up there in the middle of the day, and we were not to bother them,” adding he was never asked to set up these kinds of meetings for men.

Another strategy Weinstein used to bully women to complying with his demands, and keeping them silent afterwards, was using his influence to spread negative stories about them in the media.

“Many said that they had seen Weinstein’s associates confront and intimidate those who crossed him, and feared that they would be similarly targeted,” the New Yorker article says.

“Four actresses, including Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette, [said] they suspected that, after they rejected Weinstein’s advances or complained about them to company representatives, Weinstein had them removed from projects or dissuaded people from hiring them. Multiple sources said that Weinstein frequently bragged about planting items in media outlets about those who spoke against him.”

He also blatantly threatened to ruin women’s careers to their faces.

In one example, a Filipina-Italian model named Ambra Battilana Gutierrez told the New Yorkershe was groped by Weinstein at a meeting at his Tribeca office.

She went to the New York Police Department directly afterwards to report the incident, and while she was there Weinstein called her and tried to make plans for the following night. The NYPD encouraged her to take part in a sting operation in which she’d wear a wired and record their encounter to elicit a confession from him.

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In the recording, which you can listen to below, Gutierrez goes up to the hallway outside Weinstein’s hotel room, but then refuses to go inside.

The recording goes on for a couple of minutes, during which Weinstein can be heard becoming increasingly frustrated with her that she won’t come inside, and that she talks openly about how he groped her the day before.

He threatens her “Don’t ruin your friendship with me for five minutes.”

Weinstein is a wealthy man with a powerful legal team, and he used this to intimidate many women into not pursuing charges. One actress who says Weinstein forced himself on her sexually explained anonymously to the New Yorker why she didn’t press charges or go public.

“I thought it would be a ‘He said, she said,’ and I thought about how impressive his legal team is, and I thought about how much I would lose, and I decided to just move forward.”

Weinstein released a statement following the first New York Times report vaguely expressing regret and wrongdoing, but has at the same time denied sexual assault allegations, saying all encounters were consensual.

Ben Affleck spoke out against Weinstein following the two new reports, saying the accounts of abuse “made me sick”.

“We need to do better at protecting our sisters, friends, co-workers and daughters,” he said in a statement.

“We must support those who come forward, condemn this type of behaviour when we see it and help ensure there are more women in positions of power.”