Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape in an LA trial

A Los Angeles jury found the former film producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape and two counts of sexual assault at his trial on Monday.

Though Weinstein was charged with seven criminal counts, which involve four different women, the jury found him guilty of three charges of one of the accusers in the trial. 

However, Harvey did not plead guilty to all the charges.

The accuser, who is an Italian actress and model, said, “Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did,” in a statement after the verdict.

“I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime,” she added.

It is expected that the jurors will increase the imprisonment to 24 years, considering the aggravating factors of the charges. Currently, the 70-year-old is serving 23 years sentence in prison for different sex crime charges in New York after being convicted in 2020. 

Several women made sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein in 2017, which made the #MeToo movement spread viral on social media. The movement sparked similar allegations against many famous men around the world.