Shaking statements in the Weinstein process: This is how I was raped!

Shaking statements in the Weinstein process: This is how I was raped!

Haley, who was the first witness in this retrial, emphasized that she had no romantic or sexual interests in Weinstein. Rather, she had met him during the 2006 Cannes Film Festival when she tried to take a position in the film industry. At this meeting, inappropriate comments from Weinstein were expressed, which she rejected, and an invitation to a massage rejected her. This professional experience finally resulted in a job for the reality show "Project Runway", to whose set she was still molested by Weinstein, as she explained in her testimony ABC News .

The dramatic allegations

The details of Haley's statement are shocking. After she was in the Weinstein apartment, he held her at the sofa and pushed her into a dark bedroom, where he forced the rape. Haley described the moment when she realized what would happen: "I realized that I was being raped." She tried to defend herself by explaining to him that she had her period and wore a tampon, but Weinstein took it out and forced herself orally.

Haley's personal experience is not an isolated case in Hollywood. According to a survey by the Hollywood Commission, which Anita Hill is headed, 1 out of 5 women stated that they were sexually molested or attacked in the course of their career. In addition, more than 2,250 women reported unwanted sexual attention in the workplace, and there are well -founded information that younger employees are particularly often the goal of such attacks Forbes .

The reaction to the allegations

Two friends of Haley testified that they had learned about the attack in 2006. One advised her not to contact the authorities because Weinstein, who is now 73 years old, is very powerful. Weinstein himself denies all the allegations raised against him and has insisted in the past that all sexual encounters were mutually acceptable. His legal team continues to argue that all three current suspects, including Haley, also Jessica Mann and Kaja Sokola, became sexually active in the hope of making a career in the industry.

The retrial follows a judgment of 2020, in which Weinstein's original conviction was lifted due to "serious" judicial decisions and stressful statements. In the current procedure, the processing of Haley and Manns as well as the new accusations of Sokola could intensify the discussion about sexual assault in the entertainment industry.