Harvey Weinstein found guilty of third-degree rape and sexual assault

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer was found guilty of sexual assault in a New York court on Monday. But has been acquitted of two counts of predatory sexual assault.

Justice James Burke ordered Weinstein to be taken into custody. He is due to be sentenced on March 11.

Weinstein, who had been accused by dozens of women of sexual abuse, was convicted on one count of third-degree rape and one count criminal sexual act in the first degree, after a weeks-long trial and five days of jury deliberations.

As being reported, a jury comprising of seven men and five women deliberated for four and a half days before reaching the verdict on Monday morning.

On the charge of sexually assaulting Miriam Haley at his Soho apartment on July 10, 2006,  Weinstein could face a maximum of 25 years in prison.

He was also convicted of third-degree rape on the charge of assaulting Jessica Mann, an actress, and hairdresser, who accused Weinstein of raping her at a DoubleTree Hotel in New York on March 18, 2013.

The 67-year-old was found not guilty of the two most serious charges of predatory sexual assault, which carried a potential sentence of 10 years to life in prison.

The conviction was seen as a long-overdue judgment for Weinstein after years of whispers about his behavior turned into a downpour of accusations in 2017 that destroyed his career and gave rise to #MeToo globally.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. at a press conference, hailed the verdict as marking a “new day” for rape victims.

“Rape is rape, whether it’s committed by a stranger in a dark alley or by an intimate partner,” Vance said. “It’s rape whether it’s committed by an indigent person or a man of immense power, personage, and privilege… Weinstein is a vicious serial sexual predator who used his power to threaten, rape, assault, trick, humiliate and silence his victims.”