LET HIM ROT
Rapist movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, 67, is thrown into jail for 23 years ... as he STILL claims that his victims consented
‘This is not a first offence’
HANDCUFFED to a wheelchair, a self-pitying Harvey Weinstein was taken out of a New York court yesterday to start a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault.
Despite defence pleas to give the ‘broken down’ Weinstein, 67, the minimum of five years on the grounds that any longer could mean he died in prison, Justice James Burke handed down close to the maximum 29 years allowed.
Acknowledging the accusations against Weinstein go far beyond the six women who gave evidence in the trial – more than 90 women have levelled accusations dating back decades – the judge said: ‘Although this is a first conviction, it is not a first offence.’
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has started the extradition process for Weinstein to face sexual assault charges filed there. He could also face similar charges in the UK as Scotland Yard last night confirmed it is liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service.
The former movie mogul, who never gave evidence at his trial but insisted any sexual relationship he had was consensual, gave a barely coherent speech to the court that was so rambling his own lawyers had at one point to interrupt him.
Although Weinstein insisted he was trying to be a ‘better person’ and his ‘empathy has grown’, he fell a long way short of apologising to Mimi Haleyi and Jessica Mann, the two women he was convicted of attacking, as they sat in court facing him. He said he and they had ‘different truths’.
Instead Weinstein, remaining stony-faced even when his sentence was announced, expressed sympathy for the ‘thousands’ of men who he said were being denied due process in the anti-sexual harassment MeToo era he kick-started.
The producer of Oscarwinning films Shakespeare In Love and Pulp Fiction claimed he’d had ‘wonderful times’ with his two accusers, had been ‘generous’ in helping build their careers and was ‘ totally confused’ by their claims.
Rejecting the widespread perception of him as an overbearing and vengeful Hollywood titan who cowed his victims into silence, he insisted he was merely a ‘cherished film maker’ who ‘had no real power in this industry’.
Since the allegations against him broke in 2018, he said, he hadn’t seen or communicated with his three eldest children which was ‘hell on earth’.
Lengthily listing his achievements in film and his philanthropy, including plans to build a hospital, he said: ‘There are so many people, thousands of people, who would say great things about me.’
However, describing Weinstein’s behaviour towards his victims, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi told the court: ‘The young struggling dreamers were not even people to him. He could take what he wanted knowing there was very little anyone could do about it.’
Weinstein was sentenced to 20 years for forcibly performing a sex act on production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006. He received three years for third degree rape over an attack on Jessica Mann in 2013.
In the hearing at New York State Supreme Court, both women provided testimonies about his effect on their lives.
Weinstein seemed ‘completely disconnected from the gravity of the crime he has committed against me’, said Miss Haleyi.
Miss Mann, wearing a jumper that said ‘Give me Love’, said: ‘Rape is not just one moment of penetration, it is for ever.’
Of the man who exploited her desperation to be an actress by offering to be her mentor, she said: ‘It takes a very special kind of evil to exploit connections to leverage rape.’
The defence plans to appeal, with Weinstein’s lawyer, Donna Rotunno, describing the sentence as ‘obscene’ and saying she was ‘overcome by anger’.
The six women who testified against Weinstein embraced as the sentence was read and received a round of applause as they left the courtroom.
Model Tarale Wulff, who testified that Weinstein raped her in 2005 when she was a cocktail waitress, said outside court: ‘For the first time I can say I feel a sense of happiness.’
She added that his imprisonment ‘sends a clear message that times have changed’.