Harvey Weinstein trial: Woman tells court alleged rape left her ‘feeling very guilty’
A woman who alleges Harvey Weinstein raped her in 2013 has testified she felt guilt and disgust for years after she let him into her hotel room.
The woman, a model and actress living and working in Rome who was in Los Angeles at the time for a film festival, said she began drinking heavily the day after the alleged rape.
“I was destroying myself,” she said. “I was feeling very guilty. Most of all because I opened that door.”
The woman was the first of eight Weinstein accusers set to testify in Los Angeles, where the 70-year-old movie mogul is on trial for multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.
Weinstein, who is already serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York, has pleaded not guilty.
While most of the women have said their assaults began with what were supposed to be business meetings with Weinstein at hotels, the woman who testified on Tuesday said she found him knocking on her door late at night in February 2013.
She said she had met him only briefly earlier in the evening at the Los Angeles Italia film festival and was staying in the hotel under a pseudonym.
She said she had no idea how Weinstein even knew her room number and that she let him through her door initially without thinking there was any harm in it but Weinstein became sexually aggressive.
The woman, whose first language is Russian, said her English was very poor at the time, though it has improved considerably since, and she thought she might have miscommunicated.
“I was feeling guilty that I did something or said something that made him think something could happen between us,” she said.
Weinstein in court earlier this month. Pic: AP
She said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on her hotel bed.
“I was kind of hysterical through tears,” she said. “I kept saying ‘no, no, no’.”
She said she physically feared Weinstein, who outweighed her by 100 pounds or more and considered running or hitting or biting him.
When deputy district attorney Paul Thompson asked why she did not, she answered: “I don’t know. I regret this a lot.”
She said by the time Weinstein took her into the bathroom to rape her, she had stopped physically resisting, though still objected verbally.
“I would just freeze, like my body wouldn’t listen,” she said.
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She said she struggled to face her children after the alleged rape and felt the need to confess to her Russian Orthodox priest. Prosecutors sought the priest to testify but he declined, citing religious privilege. The woman’s daughter, now 21, is set to testify later.
In his opening statement, Weinstein’s attorney Mark Werksman said many of the counts his client is charged with were actually consensual sex his accusers reframed after he became a focus of the #MeToo movement in 2017.
But in the case of the woman who testified on Tuesday, Mr Werksman denied the events in her room happened at all.
Kelly Osbourne has commented on the death of her father Ozzy Osbourne for the first time since he died on Tuesday.
The figurehead of heavy metal died aged 76, just a few weeks after performing a huge farewell show with his Black Sabbath bandmates in Birmingham, where the band was formed in 1968.
After the show, Kelly got engaged to her longtime partner and musician Sid Wilson, of the band Slipknot, after he got down on one knee backstage.
After the frontman passed away on Tuesday, the Osbourne family released a joint statement that read: “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love.”
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The life of Ozzy Osbourne
In her first comments since losing her father, Kelly wrote on Instagram: “I feel unhappy I am so sad. I lost the best friend I ever had,” followed by a broken heart emoji.
She was quoting lyrics from the 1972 Black Sabbath song Changes.
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The father and daughter were famously close, appearing on The Osbournes reality TV show together and covering the song Changes as a duet in 2003.
“That song stands for so much in our family and to me and Dad,” Kelly said on the TV show Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, starring her brother, Jack.
“It was not only both of our first number one [single] in the UK, it represented a time in my life and a time in Dad’s life, it represented our relationship and how much we loved each other.”
Black Sabbath are widely credited with having invented heavy metal, but the piano ballad Changes widely deviated from their usual guitar and drum-heavy style.
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Coldplay dedicates Nashville concert to Ozzy Osbourne
The band Coldplay also used the song to pay tribute to Ozzy this week, playing a stripped back, short version of Changes in a show in Nashville, Tennessee.
After the song, frontman Chris Martin said: “Ozzy, we love you, wherever you’re going.”
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Riverdance star Michael Flatley is hoping to become Ireland’s next president, a court has heard.
The revelation came out in a legal case over work done on his mansion in County Cork, the Castlehyde.
Barrister Ronnie Hudson said there had been a “material change in circumstances” for Flatley and he’s set to move back to Ireland in the next two weeks in the hope of running in autumn’s election.
A legal statement signed by the star’s solicitor, Maxwell Mooney, was also submitted to the High Court stating Flatley would “seek nominations to run for president of Ireland”.
Flatley rose to fame when Riverdance, which features traditional Irish music and dance, became a phenomenon in the 1990s and went on to tour the world. It continues to be performed today.
The choreographer and dancer also created and starred in Lord Of The Dance.
The 67-year-old – who currently lives in Monaco – strongly hinted at a presidential bid last week, but said he hadn’t made a final decision.
He told a radio interview he didn’t think the Irish people had a “true proper deep voice that speaks their language”.
Flatley said the “average person on the street” is unhappy with the status quo and “somebody has to speak for the Irish people”.
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The role of president in Ireland is largely ceremonial and is currently held by Michael D Higgins, whose term ends on 11 November.
The election is expected to take place at the end of October.
A candidate needs nominations from at least 20 members of the Irish parliament or at least four local authorities.
Those who’ve already met the criteria are former farming journalist and EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness, and former Galway mayor Catherine Connolly.
Former MMA fighter Conor McGregor is among others who have also hinted they might run – although the prospect was universally rejected by other politicians in Ireland.
The actor who played PC Reg Hollis in hit TV series The Bill has been praised by officers after helping them arrest a shoplifter.
Jeff Stewart stepped in when a thief attempted to escape on a bicycle in Southampton on Wednesday.
In a statement, a Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said: “The thief, 29-year-old Mohamed Diallo, fell off the bike during his attempts to flee, before officers pounced to make their arrest.
“To their surprise, local TV legend Jeff Stewart, who played PC Hollis for 24 years in The Bill, came to their aid by sitting on the suspect’s legs while officers put him in cuffs.
(L-R) Jeff Stewart, Roberta Taylor, Mark Wingett, Trudie Goodwin and Cyril Nri celebrating The Bill’s 21st anniversary in 2004. Pic: PA
“In policing you should always expect the unexpected, but this really wasn’t on The Bill for this week.”
The Bill was broadcast on ITV between 1984 and 2010 and featured the fictional lives of police officers from the Sun Hill police station in east London.
Mr Stewart, who was among the original cast, appeared in more than 1,000 episodes as PC Hollis.
Police released footage showing their pursuit of a shoplifter in Southampton. Pic: Hampshire Constabulary
As the suspect falls to the floor, PC Hollis (aka Jeff Stewart) sits on his legs. Pic: Hampshire Constabulary
In praising Mr Stewart’s actions, the force said: “Long since retired from Sun Hill station – but he’s still got it.”
Police from the Bargate Neighbourhoods Policing Team were alerted by staff at a Co-op store in Ocean Way to a suspected shoplifter on Wednesday.
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Mohamed Diallo, 29, of Anglesea Road, Southampton, was subsequently charged with five offences of theft relating to coffee, alcohol and food from the Co-op and two other Sainsbury’s stores on three dates in April and July.
He pleaded guilty at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and was bailed to be sentenced on August 29.
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