Topline
British prosecutors on Wednesday said they had authorized two charges of indecent assault against former Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein stemming from accusations made by a 50-year-old woman about two incidents that allegedly took place between July and August 1996 in London.
Harvey Weinstein leaves New York City Criminal Court after a bail hearing.
Key Facts
Rosemary Ainslie, head of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime Division, said in a statement charges had been authorized “following a review of the evidence gathered by the [London] Metropolitan Police in its investigation.”
The news comes five years after British police said they were investigating sexual assault claims against the 70-year-old Weinstein—co-founder of the entertainment company Miramax and the Weinstein Company Film Studio—that allegedly occurred over several decades in the U.K., which does not have a statute of limitations for sexual assault cases.
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape while he awaits another trial in California.
Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for Weinstein, told Forbes it was “strange and even unhelpful” for U.K authorities to release the information without interviewing Weinstein or providing “any plan of how they intend to proceed with the matter.”
Key Background
The news comes a week after an appellate court in New York upheld Weinstein’s rape and criminal sexual act convictions after the disgraced movie producer appealed his 2020 conviction. Weinstein had argued the trial was influenced by media coverage and said accusers who weren’t part of the criminal case should not have been allowed to testify, claims a panel of five judges rejected. Weinstein—who has denied sexual assault allegations against him—was found guilty of raping a woman at a hotel in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman in 2006. The charges came after the New York Times and the New Yorker in 2017 shared stories from multiple women who said they were assaulted or harassed by Weinstein, accounts that helped spark the MeToo movement. The U.K. police in 2017 said they were investigating accusations of assault against Weinstein from three women in separate incidents in London in the late 1980s, 1992, 2010, 2011 and 2015.
Big Number
More than 80. That’s how many women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault or rape, including actresses Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rose McGowan and Salma Hayek.
Further Reading
UK Prosecutors Authorise Charges Against Harvey Weinstein (Reuters)
Appeals Court Upholds Harvey Weinstein’s Conviction (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/06/08/uk-prosecutors-authorize-assault-charges-against-harvey-weinstein/