Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape by Los Angeles court

Harvey Weinstein, a former Hollywood film producer, was convicted for the sexual assault and rape of an Italian actor and model by a Los Angeles court on Monday, according to reports from Associated Press.

The 70-year-old was convicted of forced rape and other counts of sexual misconduct involving the Italian actor. She said that Weinstein entered her hotel room uninvited during the Los Angeles film festival in February 2013.

Four complainants levelled the charges of sexual assault against Weinstein, and during the two-month-long trial, he defended himself against them. In the end, he was found guilty on three counts involving the Italian actor and model at the trial.


As per AP’s report, the anonymous complainant said that on February night in 2013, a part of her was “forever destroyed” by Harvey Weinstein, and she’ll “never get that back”. She termed the criminal trial “brutal” and added that the lawyers of Weinstein had put her “through hell on the witness stand”, but she withstood it all till the end.

She continued by saying that she hoped “Weinstein never to see” anything beyond his prison cell during his lifetime.



However, on some counts, the jury of four women and eight men couldn’t reach a decision involving allegations of sexual assault charges that concerned Jennifer Siebel Newson, a documentary filmmaker and the wife of Gavin Newson and model Lauren Young, BBC reported.

Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for assaulting Mimi Haleyi, a former production assistant, and raping Jessica Mann 2020, an aspiring actor back then. And when he is sentenced, he could get up to 24 years in California.

The New Yorker and The New York Times first reported the allegations of sexual assault against Weinstein in 2017, which led to the development of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

FAQs:

1. Who started the MeToo movement?
   Activist Tarana Burke first coined the term.
2. Is sexual assault increasing in the US?
   It has increased.