News feed
Following a two-month trial in Los Angeles Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of three counts of sexual assault, including rape. He faces up to 24 years in prison when convicted. The former Hollywood mogul is already facing 23 years in prison after he was convicted of rape and sexual assault at a New York trial in 2020.
According to the BBC, the trial saw dozens of witnesses take the stand over four weeks. He was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault involving an accuser named Jane Doe 1 – to protect her identity. The jury failed to reach verdicts on allegations against two other women – Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Jane Doe 2 – and declared a mistrial. Weinstein was acquitted of sexual battery against a third accuser known as Jane Doe 3.
The allegations against the Pulp Fiction producer spanned across 2005 to 2013 with the jury hearing how he lured women into meetings before allegedly assaulting them.
Following the verdict, one woman told reporters: “Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back.
“The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did,” she added. “I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
Previous to this indictment – a process that was delayed due to the pandemic – Weinstein was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in February 2020 of raping hairstylist Jessica Mann in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on former television production assistant Miriam Haleyi in 2006.
This latest trial coincides with the cinematic release of She Said, a film starring Carey Mulligan that details how two journalists from the New York Times first reported allegations of sexual assault by the Miramax co-founder.
Tile credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
