Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, after a jury found him guilty last year of committing a criminal sexual act against a former assistant. In a victim impact statement in court, his accuser, Miriam Haley, said the assault had a “devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away”. Appearing in court in a wheelchair, Weinstein denied the allegations but apologised to “anyone I may have hurt by my actions”. Weinstein has already spent six years in prison as the cases against him play out, and he has a separate conviction for sex crimes in Los Angeles.
He has faced three trials in New York over rape and abuse allegations. He was originally convicted and sentenced in the Miriam Haley case in 2020. But in 2024, New York’s highest court overturned the conviction, ruling Weinstein did not get a fair trial. He was retried and convicted again for Haley’s assault last year.
The 2020 trial heard testimony from three women: Haley, actress Jessica Mann, and model Kaja Sokola. Haley testified that Weinstein had assaulted her in a Manhattan apartment in 2006, and a jury found him guilty on that charge. “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.
