Harvey Weinstein trial on further sexual assault charges begins in Los Angeles

The trial of Harvey Weinstein is starting in a California courtroom, marking the second time the former Hollywood titan is standing trial on accusations of sexual assault.

Weinstein, now 70, is facing 11 sexual assault charges for alleged attacks against five women between 2004 to 2013. The accusations include forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery by restraint and sexual penetration by use of force.

Jury selection, the first phase of the trial, starts on Monday in Los Angeles’ superior court. The trial is expected to last several weeks.

It is the second sexual assault trial for Weinstein, who has been incarcerated since February 2020 when a New York jury convicted him of rape in the third degree for his assault on one woman and a criminal sex act in the first degree for forcing oral sex on Miriam Haley, a former Project Runway production assistant. A judge sentenced him to 23 years in prison.

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Weinstein has long maintained his innocence.

“All of the allegations against Mr Weinstein are either fabricated, or they result from consensual sexual relationships that his accusers now falsely characterise as sexual assaults,” Weinstein’s lawyer, Mark Werksman, said.

Weinstein recently sought to have his New York conviction overturned, but a five-judge panel upheld the ruling. The state’s highest court, however, has agreed to allow Weinstein to appeal the conviction.

Weinstein’s trial in Los Angeles comes five years after reports in the New York Times and the New Yorker about the allegations against the producer helped spark the #MeToo movement.

Within weeks of the first revelations, nearly 90 women had come forward accusing Weinstein of inappropriate behaviour and sexual violence in incidents that date back to the 1970s.

If convicted in Los Angeles, Weinstein faces up to 140 years in prison.