Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 more years in prison

'Please don't sentence me to life in prison. I don't deserve it'

Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to another 16 years in prison. The disgraced movie mogul was handed the sentence by a Los Angeles judge Thursday after being convicted in December on three charges of rape and sexual assault. According to a report by the BBC, Weinstein begged the court: "Please don't sentence me to life in prison," the disgraced Hollywood star told the court. "I don't deserve it." The 70-year-old was already serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York — meaning that it is very likely that Weinstein will now spend the rest of his life in prison. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench ordered the second sentence to be served consecutively, meaning that it will start after Weinstein completes his term for the New York crimes. The woman whose testimony provided the basis of his conviction in LA is a European model whom Weinstein raped during a film festival in Los Angeles in February 2013. She was referred to as  "Jane Doe #1" during proceedings. Weinstein, told the court that he never raped Jane Doe 1 and suggested she was an "actress with the ability turn on her tears". Weinstein — once one of the most inarguably powerful men in Hollywood — was brought to trial in California on seven charges of rape and sexual assault involving four women between 2004 and 2013. The jury found him not guilty of one charge and could not decide about three others. The producer was initially charged in Los Angeles on eleven counts of rape and sexual assault. However, by the time he went on trial, prosecutors had dropped four charges related to a woman identified in the case as "Jane Doe #5" because the state was "unable to proceed" with her allegations. Allegations against Weinstein by dozens of women — including those published by The New York Times and The New Yorker in October 2017 — were a driving force behind the #MeToo movement. During his New York sentencing in March 2020, according to a report by NPR, Weinstein compared the #MeToo movement and his own situation to the Red Scare of the 1940s and '50s, during which Hollywood professionals were blacklisted for their perceived support of communism. Related links:

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