Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison
Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York on charges of rape and sexual assault.
Weinstein was found guilty in a trial last month of two felony sex crimes, including raping actress Jessica Mann and forcing oral sex on former production assistant Miriam Haley, sealing his dramatic fall from grace that sparked the international #MeToo movement.
The two main accusers appeared in court today alongside four other witnesses from the trial, who were seen cheering as they entered court together. The group of six women had testified against Weinstein during the trial, describing Weinstein as “a known offender whose crimes were covered up”.
Weinstein arrived at the New York supreme court in a wheelchair today, after months of using a zimmer frame that invited claims the producer was playing the victim.
Since he was convicted last month, Weinstein has split time between Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan where he underwent emergency heart surgery, and Rikers Island jail. His spokesman said he had suffered a major fall earlier in the week.
The 67 year old’s lawyers had appealed for leniency, insisting that his fragile state meant that even the minimum sentence of five years could count as a “ de facto life sentence” for the former Hollywood titan.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued that Weinstein deserved the maximum possible sentence of 29 years as penance for the “lifetime of abuse” he had inflicted on more than 80 women that came forward.
Judge James Burke today handed Weinstein a 23-year sentence after being found guilty of committing a first-degree criminal sexual assault act against Haley in 2006 and of the third-degree rape of Mann in 2013.
Haley told the court that the former Hollywood heavyweight stripped me of my dignity as a human being” and that she was “relieved there are women who are safer because he is not out there”.
Jurors today acquitted Weinstein of the most serious offence of predatory sexual assault, which would likely have seen him given an even longer term.
Weinstein addressed the court for the first time today, expressing his “deep remorse” for his actions. He still faces further rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles, where he could be given an additional sentence.