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Harvey Weinstein raped four more women according to new lawsuit

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: May 29, 2020, 06:03 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison following his conviction in New York on sexual assault and rape charges in February.

For anyone who thought that the worst was over for Harvey Weinstein, there’s a new lawsuit against him that claims that he raped four more women. This,  including one woman who was 17 at the time of her attack. 

According to new court documents filed in New York, four more women have alleged sexual assaults that occurred between 1984 and 2013. 

Among those who have accused him, a 43 year-old woman alleges Weinstein raped her in 1994, when she was 17. The woman was just starting out in the entertainment industry and was recruited by one of Weinstein's associates "under the guise of doing business." When she went to meet the disgraced mogul at his hotel room, she saw him standing naked and insisted that to make it big in the industry, she had to "sexually gratify him." She was then "forced to remove her clothes" as he raped her. 

As for why she didn’t tell anyone, Harvey Weinstein had threatened her that she would be physically tracked down and he would “physically harm her and her family."

A second woman, 70, alleges Weinstein raped her in 1984 when she was 34. The woman claims the incident happened in France during the Cannes Film Festival. She claims she accompanied a friend of hers, who worked with Weinstein in foreign sales, to a meeting with the producer. She alleges the mogul led her back to one of his suites at the Hotel Barrière Le Majestic in Cannes and "pinned her against the suite’s front door," before sexually assaulting her. The woman claims Weinstein threatened her and told her to keep quiet about the incident after letting her go.

A third woman, 38, alleges Weinstein raped her 2008  when she was 26. The woman claims Weinstein "scouted" her while the two were at Cipriani’s in New York City and assured her that he would connect her with powerful players that could "take her career to the next level." After showing up to a "business" meeting with Weinstein at his Soho apartment, she alleges that he threatened she couldn't leave the apartment "unless she did what he wanted." She alleges that Weinstein then raped her. 

Bob Weinstein, Miramax and Disney are also named in the suit, which states that they "knew or reasonably should have known that Harvey Weinstein had a propensity to engage in sexual misconduct and would use his position and power to lure Plaintiffs and other similarly situated aspiring female actresses to his apartments, hotel rooms, offices, etc. under the guise of discussing business opportunities to sexually harass, batter, assault, falsely imprison and rape them." 

The suit states: "There is no doubt that Robert Weinstein knew, or should have known, that his brother was a dangerous predator likely to sexually abuse other women like Plaintiffs given that he witnessed his brother’s behavior; received direct and indirect verbal and written complaints made by and on behalf of female victims and/or employees of Miramax who were sexually abused by Harvey Weinstein." 

Weinstein has been accused of rape and sexual assault by more than 100 women. 

In February, a jury of 12 men and women found Harvey Weinstein guilty and he was sentenced to 23 years in prison following his conviction in New York on sexual assault and rape charges.