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An ex-model has tearfully told a court that being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein when she was 16 was the most “horrifying thing I ever experienced” to that point.

Warning: This article contains references to sexual assault

Kaja Sokola told the film producer’s retrial that he ordered her to remove her blouse, put his hand in her underwear, and made her touch his genitals.

She said he’d stared at her in the mirror with “black and scary” eyes and told her to stay quiet about the alleged assault in a Manhattan hotel in 2002.

Ms Sokola told the New York court that Weinstein had dropped names such as Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow, and said he could help fulfil her Hollywood dream.

“I’d never been in a situation like this,” said Polish-born Ms Sokola. “I felt stupid and ashamed and like it’s my fault for putting myself in this position.”

Weinstein denies sexually assaulting anyone and is back in court for a retrial after his conviction was overturned last year.

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Read more: Weinstein is back in court – but what has happened to the #MeToo movement since 2017?

Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court during his rape and sexual assault re-trial in New York.
Pic Reuters
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Weinstein denies the allegations. Pic: Reuters

The 73-year-old is not charged over the alleged sexual assault because it happened too long ago to bring criminal charges.

However, he is facing charges over an incident four years later when he’s said to have forced Ms Sokola to perform oral sex on him.

Prosecutors claim it happened after Weinstein arranged for her to be an extra in a film.

“My soul was removed from me,” she told the court of the alleged 2006 assault, describing how she tried to push Weinstein away but that he held her down.

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Ms Sokola – who’s waived her right to anonymity – is the second of three women to testify and the only one who wasn’t part of the first trial in 2020.

Miriam Haley, an accuser testifying at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial, arrives to the courtroom after a break in New York, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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Miriam Haley testified previously in the retrial. Pic: AP

Miriam Haley last week told the court that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. The other accuser, Jessica Mann, is yet to appear.

Claims against the film mogul were a major driver for the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse in 2017.

Weinstein’s lawyers allege the women consented to sexual activity in the hope of getting film and TV work and that they stayed in contact with him for a while afterwards.

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Lil Nas X pleads not guilty after being charged with assaulting police officer

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Lil Nas X pleads not guilty after being charged with assaulting police officer

US rapper Lil Nas X has pleaded not guilty after being charged with assaulting a police officer while walking in downtown Los Angeles in his underwear.

The musician, real name Montero Lamar Hill, was taken to hospital and arrested after police responded to reports of a naked man shortly before 6am on Thursday.

The district attorney’s office said on Monday that Lil Nas X faces three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer.

He was being held on a $75,000 (£55,457) bail, conditional on attending drug treatment. It is not immediately clear whether he had posted it and been released yet.

He is set to return to court on 15 September for his next pre-trial hearing.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

During the hearing on Monday, Hill’s lawyer Christy O’Connor told the judge he had led a “remarkable” life, adding: “Assuming the allegations here are true, this is an absolute aberration in this person’s life.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to him.”

A law enforcement source told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, on Thursday that the Old Town Road and Industry Baby hitmaker punched an officer twice in the face during the encounter.

The source added officers were unsure whether he was on any substances or in mental distress.

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NBC News cited TMZ footage where Hill was seen walking down the middle of Ventura Boulevard at 4am on Thursday in a pair of white briefs and cowboy boots.

In the videos, Hill tells a driver to “come to the party” in one clip and in another tells the person: “Didn’t I tell you to put the phone down?”

“Uh oh, someone’s going to have to pay for that,” Hill says as he continues to walk away.

In some clips, Hill struts as if he’s on a catwalk, posing for onlookers, and at one point he places an orange traffic cone on his head.

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Bands pull out from festival after group ‘cut off’ over Palestine flag

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Bands pull out from festival after group 'cut off' over Palestine flag

Several bands have pulled out from the Victorious music festival just hours before their scheduled performances, following claims by Irish folk group The Mary Wallopers that they were “cut off” for displaying a Palestinian flag.

The Last Dinner Party, Cliffords, and The Academic announced on Saturday that they would no longer be performing at the annual music festival in Portsmouth following Friday’s incident.

The organisers, who said the band’s set was cut short for using a “discriminatory” chant, have since apologised and promised to make “a substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people”.

Rock band The Last Dinner Party said they are “outraged” by the incident and would boycott the festival.

“We are outraged by the decision made to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious. As a band we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today,” they said in a statement shared on their Instagram page.

“As Gazans are deliberately plunged into catastrophic famine after two years of escalating violence, it is urgent and obvious that artists use their platform to draw attention to the cause.

“To see an attempt to direct attention away from the genocide in order to maintain an apolitical image is immensely disappointing.”

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Abigail Morris, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies, Lizzie Mayland and Aurora Nishevci of The Last Dinner Party. File pic: Reuters
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Abigail Morris, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies, Lizzie Mayland and Aurora Nishevci of The Last Dinner Party. File pic: Reuters

The Last Dinner Party said that throughout the summer, they have used their performances to encourage their audiences to make donations to a medical charity supporting Palestinians and urged their fans “more than ever to do the same”.

The band said they are “devastated to be put in this position” and apologised to those who were hoping to see them perform.

Following The Mary Wallopers’ set, a spokesperson for Victorious said: “We spoke to the artist before the performance regarding the festival’s long-standing policy of not allowing flags of any kind at the event, but that we respect their right to express their views during the show.

“Although a flag was displayed on stage contrary to our policy, and this was raised with the artist’s crew, the show was not ended at this point, and it was the artist’s decision to stop the song.”

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The Mary Wallopers claimed the festival had released a “misleading statement to the press claiming they cut our sound because of a discriminatory chant, and not the band’s call to Free Palestine”.

The band said their video “clearly shows a Victorious crew member coming on stage, interfering with our show, removing the flag from the stage and then the sound being cut following a chant of ‘Free Palestine'”.

“The same crew member is later heard in the video saying ‘you aren’t playing until the flag is removed’,” the band added.

Rock band The Academic have also pulled out of the festival, saying they could not “in good conscience” perform at “a festival that silences free speech”, while Irish band Cliffords said they “refuse to play if we are to be censored for showing our support to the people of Palestine”.

After the bands’ announcements that they were pulling out of the festival, the organisers released another statement, saying that they did not handle “the explanation of our policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached”, and issued an apology.

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Eva Victor: The ‘superstar’ who rose to fame creating viral videos on why comparisons are ‘unhelpful’ and new film Sorry, Baby

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Eva Victor: The 'superstar' who rose to fame creating viral videos on why comparisons are 'unhelpful' and new film Sorry, Baby

The creator of a new movie about the aftermath of sexual assault says comparisons with stars including Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Michaela Coel are flattering, but “aren’t ultimately helpful”.

Eva Victor, who rose to fame after creating viral comedy videos on X, wrote and directed their debut feature – Sorry, Baby – as well as playing the lead role.

They were encouraged to both write and then direct the movie by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins, after he saw Victor’s videos online.

Eva Victor, who first gained attention for their viral comedy videos, has released their first feature, Sorry, Baby. Pic: A24
Image:
Eva Victor, who first gained attention for their viral comedy videos, has released their first feature, Sorry, Baby. Pic: A24

The film was warmly received at Sundance and Cannes, and its creator was hailed a “superstar”. But along with such accolades come inevitable comparisons.

Victor told Sky News: “The thing that that moved us so much about [Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge] and about Michaela Coel and about Greta Gerwig and those people is that it’s just a true voice.”

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 2024. Pic: PA
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Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 2024. Pic: PA

They admit “that part of the comparison means everything”, but go on: “I’m non-binary, so I use ‘they’ and ‘she’ pronouns and I think it’s interesting that we feel pretty binary about comparisons.

“People are pretty interested in putting me in a category of women. I mean, Denzel Washington directed himself. Albert Brooks directed himself. Jodie Foster directed after acting.

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“It’s an interesting conversation, and I think maybe comparisons aren’t ultimately so helpful. But also, I’m very honoured because they’re people I desperately look up to. Overall, it’s a very, very fine comparison.

Pic: A24
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Pic: A24

‘The bad thing’ at the heart of the movie

A triple threat, Victor studied acting and playwriting at Northwestern University, Illinois, before moving to New York in 2016 where they worked on the feminist satirical website Reductress. They later landed a role in Showtime drama series Billions.

A black comedy, Sorry, Baby tells the story of Agnes, a twenty-something New England literature student – and later academic – who is sexually assaulted by her college tutor.

Dubbed “the bad thing” in the movie, the assault – which occurs off camera – is a catalyst for the movie’s storyline but never becomes its focus.

Victor has called the writing of the project, “my soul on the page” – without speaking directly about whether any real-life experience inspired it – telling Sky News: “The process you go through privately, you’re exercising something very soul-forward. It’s very exposing.”

The impact of sexual assault around the world is something Victor calls “a big, big societal tragedy”. One in four women in England and Wales experiences sexual assault in their lifetime, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Victor says: “The reason I made the film was to try to make a film about an attempt at healing and much less about a kind of violence.”

They explain: “As someone who wanted to explore the intimate feelings of recovery from something like this, the only way through for me was to really think about Agnes and what is truthful to her story.”

Pic: A24
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Pic: A24

‘Less about violence, and more about love’

Several instances in the film show the system failing to effectively deal with or even fully acknowledge the abuse – first a hospital, then a university – and those scenes are handled with a lightness of touch not always applied to trauma-based stories.

Victor says: “Humour in those scenes is used as a way for punching up people in power. And these institutions that create a really difficult, painful time for people.”

In the current climate, as convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein faces his third trial, and music star P Diddy awaits sentencing – where does Victor think the MeToo movement stands now?

Despite the movie’s themes, Victor is reticent to become a mouthpiece for the movement.

Measuring their words carefully, Victor offers a note of optimism in their answer – much like the message of the movie – looking to the future with hope, albeit in an imperfect world.

“I think there’s rehabilitation that is necessary for everyone, and I’m less interested in violence and punishment and much more interested in finding love and trying to hold each other.”

Sorry, Baby is in UK cinemas now.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

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