Actor Danny Masterson has been given a jail sentence of 30 years to life for raping two women 20 years ago.
Masterson, best known for his role in TV comedy That 70’s Show, was handed the prison term after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F Olmedo heard from the women he assaulted, who detailed their trauma and suffering.
The 47-year-old US actor, who has been in custody since May, sat in his suit without a reaction as the pair spoke.
“When you raped me, you stole from me,” said one woman.
“That’s what rape is, a theft of the spirit.”
“You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent. The world is better off with you in prison.”
The other woman, who he also raped in 2003, said Masterson “has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused”.
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She told the judge: “I knew he belonged behind bars for the safety of all the women he came into contact with. I am so sorry, and I’m so upset. I wish I’d reported him sooner to the police.”
A mistrial was declared in December 2022 after a jury failed to reach a verdict on three rape counts, and he was retried on all charges.
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He was found guilty by a majority decision of two counts on 31 May, after seven days of deliberations, but the jury could not reach a verdict on the third count allegedly involving another woman.
Masterson was sentenced after a defence motion for a new trial was rejected, with his lawyers trying to have the two convictions run concurrently at 15 years to life.
“It’s his life that will be impacted by what you decide today,” Masterson’s lawyer Shawn Holley told the judge.
“And the life of his nine-year-old daughter, who means the world to him, and to whom he means the world.
“He has lived an exemplary life, he has been an extraordinary father, husband, brother, son, co-worker and community servant.”
Image: Danny Masterson leaves Los Angeles Superior Court with his wife Bijou Phillips in November 2022. Pic: AP
Prosecutors argued his position in the controversial Church of Scientology, where the two women and one alleged victim were also members, was used to avoid consequences afterwards, with the women blaming the organisation for their hesitancy in going to the police.
In a statement, the church said the “testimony and descriptions of Scientology beliefs” during the trial were “uniformly false”.
“The church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone – Scientologists or not – to law enforcement.”
Masterson did not testify, nor did his lawyers call any witnesses, with the defence instead arguing the acts were consensual.
The women, whose evidence led to his conviction, said that in 2003 Masterson gave them drinks that made them feel light-headed, before they passed out and he raped them.
That 70’s Show, which ran for eight series from 1998 to 2006, revolved around a group of teenage friends, and was set in 1970s Wisconsin.
An antiques expert from the TV show Bargain Hunt has been charged by police following an investigation into terrorist financing.
Oghenochuko ‘Ochuko’ Ojiri, 53, is accused of eight counts of “failing to make a disclosure during the course of business within the regulated sector”, the Met Police said.
The force said he was the first person to be charged with that specific offence under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Mr Ojiri, from west London, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
It comes “following an investigation into terrorist financing” and relates to the period from October 2020 to December 2021, a police spokesperson said.
They added that the probe had been carried out in partnership with Treasury officials, HMRC and the Met’s Arts & Antiques Unit.
Mr Ojiri, who police described as an “art dealer”, has been on Bargain Hunt since 2019.
He has also appeared on the BBC‘s Antiques Road Trip programme.
In a statement, the BBC said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
A man has been charged after allegedly harassing Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston for two years before crashing his car through the front gate of her home, prosecutors have said.
Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, of New Albany, Mississippi, is accused of having repeatedly sent the Friends star unwanted voicemail, email and social media messages since 2023.
The 48-year-old is then alleged to have crashed his grey Chrysler PT Cruiser through the front gate of Aniston’s home in the wealthy Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles early on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors said the collision caused major damage.
Police have said Aniston was at home at the time.
A security guard stopped Carwyle on her driveway before police arrived and arrested him.
There were no reports of anyone being injured.
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Carwyle has been charged with felony stalking and vandalism, prosecutors said on Thursday.
He also faces an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm, Los Angeles County district attorney Nathan Hochman said.
Carwyle, who has been held in jail since his arrest on Monday, is set to appear in court on Thursday.
His bail has been set at $150,000 dollars (£112,742).
He is facing up to three years in prison if he is convicted as charged.
“My office is committed to aggressively prosecuting those who stalk and terrorise others, ensuring they are held accountable,” Mr Hochman said in a statement.
Aniston bought her mid-century mansion in Bel Air on a 3.4-acre site for about 21 million dollars (£15.78m) in 2012, according to reporting by Architectural Digest.
She became one of the biggest stars on television in her 10 years on NBC’s Friends.
Aniston won an Emmy Award for best lead actress in a comedy for the role, and she has been nominated for nine more.
She has appeared in several Hollywood films and currently stars in The Morning Show on Apple TV+.
Producer Giles Martin has said plans to allow AI firms to use artists’ work without permission, unless creators opt out, is like criminals being given free rein to burgle houses unless they are specifically told not to.
Martin, who is the son of Beatles producer George Martin and worked with Sir Paul McCartney on the Get Back documentary series and the 2023 Beatles track Now And Then, spoke to Sky News at a UK Music protest at Westminster coinciding with a parliamentary debate on the issue.
Under the plans, an exemption to copyright would be created for training artificial intelligence (AI), so tech firms would not need a licence to use copyrighted material – rather, creators would need to opt out to prevent their work from being used.
Creatives say if anything it should be opt-in rather than out, and are calling on the government to scrap the proposals and stop AI developers “stealing” their work “without payment or permission”.
Image: Giles Martin at the 2025 Grammy Awards. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
“If you create something unique it should be unique to you,” says Martin. “It shouldn’t be able to be harvested and then used by other people. Or if it is, it should be with your permission… it shouldn’t be up to governments or big tech.”
Sir Elton John and Simon Cowell are among the celebrities who have backed a campaign opposing the proposals, and Sir Paul has also spoken out against them.
“This is about young artists,” says Martin. “If a young Paul McCartney at the age of 20 or 22 wrote Yesterday, now… big tech would almost be able to harvest that song and use it for their own means. It doesn’t make any sense, this ruling of opting out – where essentially it’s like saying, ‘you can burgle my house unless I ask you not to’.”
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‘I’m not anti-AI – it’s a question of permission’
The Beatles’ track Now And Then was written and recorded by John Lennon in New York in the late 1970s, and AI was used to extract his vocals for the 2023 release. The Get Back documentary also used audio restoration technology, allowing music and vocals to be isolated.
Image: AI was used to release The Beatles’ track Now And Then in 2023. Pic: Apple Corps Ltd
“I’m not anti [AI], I’m not saying we should go back to writing on scribes,” Martin said. “But I do think that it’s a question of artist’s permission.”
Using AI to “excavate” Lennon’s voice was with the permission of the late singer’s estate, he said, and is “different from me getting a 3D printer to make a John Lennon”.
He added: “The idea of, for example, whoever your favourite artist is – the future is, you get home from work and they’ll sing you a song, especially designed for you, by that artist, by that voice. And it’ll make you feel better because AI will know how you’re feeling at that time. That’s maybe a reality. Whoever that artist is, they should probably have a say in that voice.”
Crispin Hunt, of 1990s band The Longpigs, who also attended the protest, said “all technology needs some kind of oversight”.
“If you remove the ability for the world to make a living out of creativity, or if you devalue creativity to such an extent that that it becomes a hobby and worthless to do, then humanity in life will be far less rich because it’s art and culture that makes life richer,” he said. “And that’s why the companies want it for free.”
The Data (Use and Access) Bill primarily covers data-sharing agreements, but transparency safeguards were removed at committee stage.
Critics say changes need to be made to ensure that companies training generative AI models disclose whether work by a human creator has been used and protect creatives under existing copyright rules.
In February, more than 1,000 artists and musicians including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Sam Fender and Annie Lennox released a silent album in protest at the proposed changes.
At that time, a government spokesperson said the UK’s current rules were “holding back the creative industries, media and AI sector from realising their full potential – and that cannot continue”.
The spokesperson said they were consulting on proposals that better protect the “interests of both AI developers and right holders” and to deliver a solution “which allows both to thrive”.