Entertainment

Harvey Weinstein arrives at court to face new charges

An updated indictment alleged the 66-year-old performed a forcible sex act on a woman in 2006.
An updated indictment alleged the 66-year-old performed a forcible sex act on a woman in 2006. An updated indictment alleged the 66-year-old performed a forcible sex act on a woman in 2006.

Harvey Weinstein has arrived at a Manhattan courthouse for arraignment on charges alleging he committed a sex crime against a third woman.

Courthouse guards told people arriving for jury duty to wait or use a different entrance as Weinstein arrived.

An updated indictment alleges the former movie mogul performed a forcible sex act on a woman in 2006.

The new charges include two counts of predatory sexual assault, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison upon conviction.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr said the 66-year-old Weinstein is charged with “some of the most serious sexual offences” that exist under state law.

Lawyer Ben Brafman said Weinstein maintains all the allegations are false and he will be vindicated.

A grand jury previously indicted Weinstein on charges involving two women.

One of the other two accusers, who has not been identified publicly, told investigators Weinstein cornered her in a hotel room and raped her in 2013. The other, former actress Lucia Evans, has gone public with her account of Weinstein forcing her to perform oral sex at his office in 2004.

More than 75 women have accused Weinstein, who was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, of wrongdoing as allegations detailed in Pulitzer Prize-winning stories last October in The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine swelled into the #MeToo movement.

Several actresses and models have accused Weinstein of criminal sexual assaults. They include film actress Rose McGowan, who said Weinstein raped her in 1997 in Utah; Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who said he raped her in her New York apartment in 1992; and the Norwegian actress Natassia Malthe, who said he attacked her in a London hotel room in 2008.

New York police said in early November that they were investigating allegations by another Weinstein accuser, Boardwalk Empire actress Paz de la Huerta, who told them in October that he raped her twice in 2010.

The district attorney urged other accusers to come forward.

Cyrus R Vance Jr said: “If you are a survivor of the predatory abuse with which Mr Weinstein is charged, there is still time to pursue justice.”

Weinstein, who produced movies including Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love, has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex, with his attorney challenging the credibility of his accusers.