SEX BEAST WEINSTEIN GUILTY
Disgraced movie mogul convicted of rape and assault
SHAMED Harvey Weinstein was behind bars in the US last night after being convicted of rape and criminal sexual assault.
The film mogul, 67, was cleared of three other charges but faces up to 29 years in jail. He was convicted of attacks on Miriam Haley, 42, and 34-year-old Jessica Mann.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr said: “Weinstein is a vicious, serial sexual predator.”
DISGRACED movie mogul Harvey Weinstein could die behind bars after he was convicted of rape and criminal sexual assault yesterday.
The 67-year-old sat emotionless in court as the verdicts were delivered after a trial which proved a watershed moment for the #Metoo movement.
But the powerhouse film producer was cleared of the two most serious charges – predatory sexual assault – that would have seen him automatically sentenced to life in jail.
He was also found not guilty of a fifth charge of rape in the first degree.
If his convictions are imposed consecutively, he faces up to 29 years in jail when he is sentenced on March 11. But he could serve as few as five.
After the verdicts were read out, following almost 27 hours of deliberations, a handcuffed Weinstein was led to cells having had his bond revoked.
His customary walking frame was seen being carried out of court. unremorseful
His lawyers, who plan to appeal, tried to have him held under house arrest until sentencing, citing letters from his doctor. The judge refused.
Lead lawyer Donna Rotunno told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke that her diabetic client is “under the care of five doctors”, adding:
MEDICATION
“He takes a list of different medications. He’s getting shots in the eyes so he does not go blind.”
Judge Burke said he would ask to put Weinstein in the North Infirmary Command at New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison.
Six women gave testimony during the four-week trial in New York, claiming the Hollywood mogul had sexually assaulted or raped them.
He only faced criminal charges in connection to aspiring actress Jessica Mann, 34, and production assistant Miriam Haley, 42. He was found guilty of rape in the third degree in relation to Mann and criminal sexual assault in the first degree in Haley’s case.
Although criminal sexual assault sounds a lesser offence, because the sex act on Haley was committed “by forcible compulsion” it is first degree and carries a much higher sentence.
State sentences carry between five and 25 years on the criminal sex assault rap and from probation to four years for his rape conviction.
More than 80 women made allegations against Weinstein over the last four years. Lawyer Kendra Barkoff, who represented the “Silence Breakers”, said: “This conviction would not be possible without the testimony of the courageous women and many women who have spoken out.”
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr said: “This is the new landscape for survivors of sexual assault in America. Weinstein is a vicious, serial sexual predator who used his power to threaten, rape, assault, trick, humiliate and silence his victims.”
Founder of the #Metoo movement Tarana Burke thanked the “survivors who courageously testified,” and the jury for finding “unremorseful” Weinstein guilty. She said: “It still took years, and millions of voices raised, for one man to be held accountable.”
Actress Ashley Judd, who publicly accused him of harassment, said: “For the women who testified, you did a public service to girls and women everywhere. Thank you.”
Movie star Rosanna Arquette, one of his accusers, tweeted: “Gratitude to the brave women who testified and jury for seeing through the dirty tactics of the defence.”
Accusations against the Oscarwinning producer opened the floodgates beyond Hollywood, as thousands of women aired their stories of harassment.
The trial rested on the claims of Haley – who said he forced a sex act on her at his Manhattan flat in 2006 – and Mann, who said he raped her in a hotel room in 2013. Both said they continued to see him and had consensual sex with him, complicating the case.
The seven male and five female jurors heard graphic details of his abuse, like how in 2016 he consoled himself after his mother’s death by performing a sex act in front of Mann.
“He needed to be consoled and he
wanted to talk to me because I understood grief,” Mann, whose father died a year earlier, told the court.
She said she found him “naked on the bed”, wanting “to do something sexual”, adding: “It disgusted me.” The jury also heard how Weinstein sent one witness – actress Annabella Sciorra – a “care package” of a bottle of Valium and chocolate penises.
Italian actress Emanuela Postacchini, 32, alleged he “manipulated” her and Mann into a failed threesome at a Los Angeles hotel in 2013. Model Tarale Wulff, 43, said Weinstein performed a sex act in front of her after they met at a restaurant where she was a waitress.
MPS here called for his CBE to be scrapped. Labour’s Dawn Butler said: “The Government needs to act, fast.”
Weinstein faces a further 28 years in prison in Los Angeles if found guilty there on other sex crime charges.
You did a public service to girls and women everywhere
ASHLEY JUDD ACTRESS, ON WOMEN WHO TESTIFIED