Weinstein trial is raising troubling questions...

UNBELIEVABLE scenes from the Weinstein trial in America — and I don’t just mean Harvey shuffling in on his walking frame like a frail old bloke in a care home, about to join the lunchtime tomato soup queue.

Nor the graphic detail about his intimate physical appearance, which has been relayed in distressing detail.

It’s more that some of the testimony from alleged victims raises more questions than it answers.

Donna Rotunno, Weinstein’s lead lawyer, has established that at least one woman — Jessica Mann — who had accused Weinstein of raping her carried on a cordial relationship with him long after the alleged incident(s).

Rotunno read out email exchanges when Mann had contacted Weinstein, asking not for juicy movie roles but if he could fix her up with membership of the Soho House private members’ club, secure red-carpet invitations for her and other assorted favours.

At one point, Mann cried when this evidence was cited in court.

Coverage in the Guardian newspaper, among others, suggests the ‘aggressive’ Rotunno has gone too far. However, even though Weinstein may well be a monster, he is entitled to a fair trial and for all the evidence to be tested in court.

At the very least, some of these ‘relationships’ seem to be more complex and of ongoing mutual benefit to Weinstein and his women than we have been led to believe. The public has a right to know all this, even if it doesn’t feed into the victim narrative.