BRIT STAR: I’LL FACE SEX BEAST IN COURT
Hollyoaks Lysette’s vow as cops probe three more UK attacks
ACTRESS Lysette Anthony has pledged to get Harvey Weinstein in the dock after claiming he raped her.
The Hollyoaks star told police the movie boss pounced on her in the 80s at her home. A source said: “Lysette wants to see him in court.” The Met is probing three more UK claims.
Star’s Weinstein rape claim
Met probing 4 allegations
LYSETTE Anthony has vowed to do all she can to bring Harvey Weinstein to justice after claiming the movie mogul raped her in the late 80s.
The Hollyoaks star spoke as it was revealed Scotland Yard has ordered a specialist team to investigate allegations against the Hollywood producer of sexual assault in Britain.
And police believe there may be more women ready to come forward with complaints against disgraced Weinstein, who has been accused of preying on a string of stars in America.
Lysette claims he pounced on her at her flat in London.
She said yesterday: “I had to stand up for the truth. I’m 54 and a successful soap actress, working in a world I’m fiercely proud of. He can’t hurt me any more.”
A source close to the former movie star added: “Lysette is adamant that there needs to be justice and she wants to see Weinstein in court and answering questions for what he has done.
“She has made a big step going public and will do whatever it takes now.”
The actress, – who plays scheming Marnie Nightingale in Cheshire soap Hollyoaks – won support from co-star Gregory Finnegan, her on-screen son.
He said: “Incredibly proud of my soap mum for coming forward after all this time to tell her incredibly painful story. It must have taken an enormous amount of courage and we are 100% behind you.” Lysette’s rape claim is one of four against Weinstein, 65, the Met is looking at.
Fresh complaints from one alleged victim relate to incidents in 2010, 2011 and 2015 in London.
And a further claim was made in a Sunday newspaper with a former Miramax employee using the pseudonym “Sarah Smith” now considering a formal complaint to police.
Last Wednesday, Lysette revealed that she had just reported a historical crime and tweeted a photo of the case number, adding “feel sick... so sad”.
She told yesterday how she first met Weinstein in 1982. For the first few years they met at parties and lunch and nothing untoward happened.
But after a few years Weinstein allegedly started to change his behaviour with the actress. It is claimed that at a house in Chelsea he was renting he was halfundressed and grabbed Lysette before she fled. Then he began to stalk her, turning up unannounced at her home, she claims. Speaking of the alleged rape, she said: “I was in my dressing gown and I answered the door to find Harvey standing there.
“He pushed me inside and rammed me up against the coat rack in my tiny hall and started fumbling at my gown. He was trying to kiss me and touch me. It was disgusting. Finally I just gave up. At least I was able to stop him kissing me.
As he ground himself against me and touched me, I kept my eyes shut tight, held my breath, just let him get on with it. It was pathetic, revolting.”
Despite her ordeal, Lysette, who has also starred in The Bill, said it did not occur to her to call the police.
She added: “There hadn’t been a knife. He wasn’t a stranger. I was disgusted and embarrassed, but I was at home. I thought I should just forget the whole disgusting incident.” Lysette is expected back at work on Hollyoaks this week but will need to meet with police again to give formal video evidence. She attended a preliminary meeting on Thursday. “Sarah Smith” claimed dad-of-five Weinstein raped her in the flat of his London offices in around 1992. She has only confided in her husband about the alleged attack within the last few days. The woman, who said she chewed raw garlic and wore tatty clothes to repel Weinstein, said: “Even after all these years, I can still wake up screaming. I wanted the opportunity to speak out, but I just couldn’t see how.” The Met said: “On 11 October, Merseyside Police referred an allegation of sexual assault to the Metropolitan Police. It is alleged a man sexually assaulted a woman in the late 1980s in West London. On 14 October, further allegations were made against the same man. It is alleged he sexually assaulted a woman in Westminster in 2010 and 2011, and in Camden in 2015. Officers from the Met’s child abuse and sexual offences command are investigating. There has been no arrest.” Brit star Kate Beckinsale has told how Weinstein tried to bed her at a meeting in his hotel room when she was 17 and still at school. French actress Eva Green accused Weinstein of trying to grope her. She said: “I met him for a business meeting in Paris at which he behaved inappropriately and I had to push him off. I got away without it going further, but the experience left me shocked and disgusted.”
In America, four claims of rape and more than 30 of sexual harassment have been made against the producer, whose wife Georgina Chapman last week announced she had left him. Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow both allege he sexually harassed them when they were young stars. Both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Bafta have expelled Weinstein. Actress Rose McGowan – one of the first to accuse him of sexual harassment and who has since claimed he raped her – celebrated the decision with a post on Instagram captioned: “We slay dragons.” Kate Winslet has told how she deliberately missed Weinstein’s name off her list of thanks when she won an Oscar for best actress in 2009 for her role in The Reader, which his company financed and distributed.
She said: “That was deliberate. I remember being told, ‘Make sure you thank Harvey if you win.’ And I remember saying, ‘No I won’t.’
“The fact that I’m never going to have to deal with Harvey Weinstein again as long as I live is one of the best things that’s ever happened and I’m sure the feeling is universal.”
Weinstein’s spokeswoman said he “unequivocally denies” any allegations of non-consensual sex.
Lysette is adamant there needs to be justice and she wants to see him in court SOURCE CLOSE TO STAR ON HER DETERMINATION TO ACT