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Weinstein used Hollywood power to rape, court hears
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Power or predator: Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Oct. 4. Weinstein was extradited from New York to Los Angeles to face sex-related charges. (AFP/Etienne Laurent)
H
arvey Weinstein used his power and influence in Hollywood to rape women, leaving them terrified for their careers if they stood up to him, a court in Los Angeles heard on Monday.
The movie mogul exploited both his physical size and his position as "king" of the film industry to attack his victims in hotel rooms, the prosecution said, as a two-month trial began to hear evidence.
"They feared that he could crush their careers if they reported what he had done," Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson told the packed courtroom.
Thompson said jurors would hear from eight women who were sexually assaulted by the Pulp Fiction producer, who is credited with making the careers of some of the movie industry's biggest names, including Quentin Tarantino, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow.
"Each of these women came forward independent of each other, and none of them knew one another," he said.
The jury will hear testimony from these women, he said, including how they begged the now-70-year-old to stop, but that he persisted in raping them, forcing them to perform oral sex on him, or making them watch him masturbate.
Weinstein, who produced The English Patient and Good Will Hunting, is already serving 23 years in jail in New York after being convicted there of a series of sex crimes.
