Weinstein’sPage prosecutors line up Cosby trial witness

PROSECUTORS in the trial of Harvey Weinstein will look to an expert witness to counter the defence team’s claims that his accusers did not behave like victims after the alleged crimes.

The defence is expected to go on the offensive against the women who have accused him of rape and sexual assault, in part by questioning their subsequent behaviour.

New York City prosecutors intend to counter with a strategy that has taken hold since the 2018 retrial of comedian Bill Cosby: calling a sex crimes expert as a witness to dispel assumptions about how rape and sexual assault victims behave after an attack. Weinstein’s prosecutors are using the very same expert, Dr Barbara Ziv.

She was the first prosecution witness at Cosby’s retrial and is expected to give evidence early in Weinstein’s trial this month.

Ms Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist who has spent decades working with sex offenders and victims, is likely to be an important potential bulwark against Weinstein’s defence that he had consensual relationships with the two women at the centre of the case.

One of the women, who accuses Weinstein of raping her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013, sent him warm emails in the months after the alleged assault. ‘Miss you big guy,’ said one note. ‘There is no-one else I would enjoy catching up with that understands me quite like you,’ said another.

Ms Ziv gave evidence that victims frequently avoid or delay reporting assaults, often keep in contact with the perpetrator, remember more details over time and differ in their emotional responses.

Cosby’s jury ultimately returned a guilty verdict in the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.

In addition to the alleged rape, Weinstein, 67, is charged with sexually assaulting another woman, Mimi Haleyi, in 2006. He denies the charges. If convicted, he could be given a life sentence.

Opening statements are expected as soon as this week, following two weeks of jury selection.

‘Miss you big guy’ said one note