Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual assault

Once the high-flying producer behind Miramax, the studio that produced hits like Shakespeare in Love, Weinstein fell from grace after the New York Times and the New Yorker revealed multiple women’s allegations of sexual assault stretching back decades.

The accusations against him sparked the #MeToo movement, but New York prosecutors have had to navigate a twisting path in securing convictions and sentences.

The 2020 trial was for charges involving Haley and Mann.

Haley testified that Weinstein had assaulted her in a bedroom in his Manhattan apartment in 2006.

“I just thought, I have to stand up for myself. I have to stand up for the truth,” she told the BBC of her decision to testify.

In a retrial last year, the jury found him not guilty of sexually assaulting model Kaja Sokola.

No verdict was reached in two trials on a charge of rape related to Mann.

The jury could not reach a verdict on a rape charge involving Mann and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pursued another trial on that charge. In May, the jury in the retrial deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial.

Meanwhile, Weinstein is awaiting a new sentence in California for his 2022 conviction of raping and sexually assaulting an actress in a hotel room in 2013.

An appeals court denied Weinstein’s request to overturn the California conviction, but ordered a resentencing. It found the judge who gave Weinstein his original 16-year prison term had considered the New York convictions that were later thrown out in determining the sentence.

Weinstein has consistently denied the allegations against him, and has said in interviews he believes he will be proven innocent.

As he sentenced Weinstein to a decade and a half in prison on Wednesday, Judge Curtis Farber criticised the former Hollywood mogul’s stance.

“You took what you wanted by force and you have never accepted responsibility,” Farber said.