Hollywood movie magnate Harvey Weinstein gets 23-yr imprisonment for rape and sexual assault

The cases date back to the time of #MeToo movement during which several women, including top actresses, accused the movie mogul of sexually assaulting them.

Justice James Burke while issuing the stringent sentencing of 23 years of imprisonment, ignored the pleas of Weinstein's defence team to give their client the minimum of five years behind bars.

According to BBC, Weinstein's lawyers had appealed for leniency, insisting that even the minimum sentence of five years could be a "life sentence" for him. He came to court on a wheelchair from the Rikers Island jail.

Weinstein,67, was found guilty by a court in New York last month. The accusations against him by women triggered the "MeToo movement" against sexual assaults and harassment by powerful men. 

Allegations and charges:

On Feb 24, he was convicted of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, all of which surfaced as a result of the #MeToo movement.

All the cases date back to 1980 and continued till 2015.

Nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, have come forward since 2017 with allegations of sexual harassment and rape against the once-powerful producer of Hollywood who later became a pariah in the same industry.

Weinstein was convicted of raping ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013.

He was also charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006.

Mann, 34, and Haleyi, 42, delivered powerful victim impact statements in court.

Haleyi, who testified against Weinstein claiming that he forced oral sex on her in 2006, said he had forever altered her life while crushing her spirit.

However, Weinstein said in the court that he thought his relationships with his victims were consensual.

“We may have different truths, but I have remorse for all of you and for all the men going through this crisis,” Weinstein said, addressing his accusers.

He added: “I really feel remorse for this situation. I feel it deeply in my heart. I’m really trying, I’m really trying to be a better person.”

He was alleged with similar charges by The Silence Breakers -- a group of 24 Weinstein accusers that includes Ashley Judd, Lauren Sivan, Rosanna Arquette and Rose McGowan.

In a statement widely circulated to US entertainment media, the group said that Weinstein's legacy would always be that he was a convicted rapist.

"He is going to jail -- but no amount of jail time will repair the lives he ruined, the careers he destroyed, or the damage he has caused," they said following his conviction.

Weinstein is expected to be incarcerated outside New York City, said reports.

He will likely later be taken to Los Angeles where he faces other sex crimes charges.

Achievements in Hollywood:

Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein had co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced successful independent films including Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), The Crying Game (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Flirting with Disaster (1996), and Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Weinstein won an Academy Award for producing Shakespeare in Love.

Controversies:

In October 2017, following sexual abuse allegations, Weinstein was dismissed from his company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Weinstein would invite actresses or models into his hotel room or office ostensibly to discuss their career, and then he would demand sex, often forcing him on them.

Former colleagues and collaborators of Weinstein told reporters that these activities were enabled by employees, associates and agents who set up these meetings, as well as lawyers and publicists who suppressed complaints with payments and threats.

Top actress like Gwyneth Paltrow said she was sexually harassed by Harvey when she was 22 years old and Harvey Weinstein had cast her for the lead in the Jane Austen adaptation “Emma.” 

“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she later said in an interview, publicly disclosing that she was sexually harassed by the man who ignited her career and later helped her win an Academy Award, reported The New York Times. Even an actress like Angelina Jolie said that in the late 1990s, she rejected Harvey Weinstein’s unwanted advances in a hotel room.