British prosecutors announced on Thursday, September 5, that they were dropping the sexual assault charges brought in the United Kingdom in 2022 against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement that after reviewing the evidence in the investigation, “There is no longer any realistic prospect of conviction”in this case, which concerned alleged sexual assaults on a woman in August 1996.
“We have explained our decision to all parties”said Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS’s Special Crime and Counter-Terrorism Division. In June 2022, the British prosecutor’s office authorised the indictment of the American producer, whose crimes sparked the #metoo movement in 2017, “for two counts of sexual assault”.
“We will always encourage all potential victims of sexual assault to come forward and contact the police, and we will prosecute [les responsables] wherever the legal criteria are met”he insisted on Thursday.
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Sixteen years in prison for rape and sexual assault
Harvey Weinstein, arrested in 2018, is being held on sexual assault and rape charges in the United States. The 72-year-old former producer is due to be retried in New York soon, after an appeals court overturned his 2020 conviction for the 2013 rape of actress Jessica Mann and the 2006 sexual assault of production assistant Mimi Haleyi in late April. He remains in custody due to a 2023 conviction to 16 years in prison in Los Angeles for other rape and sexual assault cases.
The revelation in 2017 of the sexual assaults committed had triggered a global shockwave and freed the voice of many victims. More than 80 women accused him of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd.
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