Harvey Weinstein, a disgraced US movie mogul, was found guilty on Monday of sexually assaulting a woman ten years ago as part of what the prosecution called his “rule of terror” over aspiring young Hollywood actors.
A jury in Los Angeles found the “Shakespeare in Love” producer guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against the unnamed woman after deliberating for two weeks.
In a trial involving accusations from four women, they were unable to reach a verdict on a number of other offenses.
Weinstein was found guilty of sex crimes in New York and is currently serving a 23-year term.
Rumors of Weinstein’s impropriety had circulated in Hollywood for years, but his position at the apex of Tinseltown meant few were prepared to challenge him.
That all changed in 2017 with the publication of bombshell allegations against him, ushering in the #MeToo movement and opening the floodgates for women to speak out against sexual violence in the workplace.
The drawn-out West Coast trial heard graphic accounts of interactions between the once-powerful producer and women hoping to break into the film industry.
Prosecutors portrayed a predatory ogre who for years used his strength and expertise to rape and abuse women without consequence.
Prosecutors claim that his victims were terrified and worried about their careers if they spoke out against a man who had long-held power in Hollywood.
Three of the seven charges Weinstein, 70, was up against—forcible rape, forced oral copulation, and sexual penetration by a foreign object—were found to be true on Monday. All three of those counts concerned an unnamed victim only known as Jane Doe #1, and the offenses took place in February 2013.
