Weinstein sent to jail for 23 years over sex crimes
HOLLYWOOD mogul Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault.
Weinstein, who has been accused of violating scores of women, was convicted last month of raping a woman in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman at his apartment in 2006.
He faced a maximum of 29 years in prison.
Both women Weinstein was convicted of assaulting – a once-aspiring actress and a former TV and film production assistant – spoke in court before Judge James Burke announced the sentence, confronting Weinstein again after their evidence helped seal his conviction at the landmark £MeToo trial.
The once-aspiring actress who Weinstein was convicted of raping in 2013 recalled the moment during the trial when she left the witness box in tears and then could be heard screaming from an adjacent room.
“The day my screams were heard from the witness room was the day my voice came back to its full power,” she said.
“Rape is not just one moment of penetration. It is forever.” Actress Mira Sorvino, one of the many women who has accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, tweeted: “23 years. Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his crimes of rape and sexual assault. I literally cried tears of amazement, gratitude that the justice system has worked on behalf of all of his victims today.”
Weinstein, who has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual, also spoke in court, saying he had fond memories of his accusers.
Looking back during the trial at emails they exchanged, he said, he thought they had a good friendship: “I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue.”
Judge Burke also heard from Weinstein’s lawyers, who pleaded for leniency because of his age and frail health, and prosecutors, who said the man once celebrated as a titan of Hollywood deserved a harsh sentence that would account for allegations of wrongdoing dating to the 1970s.
Under state law, Judge Burke was able to consider evidence outside the scope of the trial in forming his sentence.
In their sentencing letter, prosecutors outlined 16 examples they said showed Weinstein “trapped women into his exclusive control” so he could sexually assault them, starting in 1978. Weinstein was sentenced a week shy of his 68th birthday, and his lawyers argued that a lengthy prison term would, in effect, be a life sentence.