“I was unwelcome”
USA - Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, the Italian model who recorded Harvey Weinstein admitting to groping her breast during a meeting in 2015, has been spotted in New York City. It comes after she was vindicated in dramatic fashion by the dozens of women who have spoken out about their experiences with Weinstein in recent weeks.
She was just 22 when she accused Weinstein of trying to put his hand up her skirt and feeling her breast. In a chilling recording from a wire she wore during a police sting after she made her claims, the mogul can be heard confessing to groping her as he tries to convince her to ‘get in’ his hotel room. But when she first made the claims in 2015, she had few supporters - and was even attacked for speaking out. Talking to La Repubblica newspaper, she said she didn’t work for months after the encounter with Weinstein. She added: ‘Even restaurants in Soho, where the fashion world hang out, closed their doors to me. I was unwelcome.’ But since then, over 40 women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault, including the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd. Gutierrez met the movie mogul at a dance show in 2015. Weinstein repeatedly told the Miss Italy finalist that she looked like actress Mila Kunis and arranged a meeting with her through his assistant. But at the meeting, she alleges Weinstein stared at her breasts and then groped them, and tried to put a hand up her skirt while she protested. The Filipino-Italian model said he arranged for her to see his new musical, Finding Neverland, with him that evening, but instead of meeting him at the theatre, she reported the assault to the New York Police Department.
When the annoyed film executive called Gutierrez to ask why she did not meet him, the model arranged to see him the next day at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in Manhattan and formed a plan with police.
In an exchange recorded by a police wire, and obtained and reported by the New Yorker magazine, Weinstein tried to get the model to come into a hotel room with him ‘for five minutes’ while he took a shower.
When Gutierrez refused and confronted him about touching her breasts, Weinstein said he was ‘used to that’. But after a two-week investigation, the Manhattan district attorney decided not to file charges, The New Yorker reported.
“We had the evidence”, a police source told the magazine. “It’s a case that made me angrier than I thought possible, and I have been on the force a long time.”
(dailymail.co.uk)