In brief
Harvey Weinstein, once the power behind Miramax, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of a criminal sexual act against former assistant Miriam Haley. In court, a victim‑impact statement highlighted the enduring devastation caused by the assault. Weinstein, who has been jailed in New York and Los Angeles, denied the allegations but apologized for those he may have harmed. The sentence comes after his earlier conviction was overturned in 2024, reflecting the legal struggles surrounding New York’s prosecutions. Weinstein will remain in Bellevue Hospital for health reasons while awaiting further proceedings in California.
Former Hollywood figure Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after a New York jury found him guilty of committing a criminal sexual act against former assistant Miriam Haley.
During the sentencing hearing, Haley delivered a victim‑impact statement that described the assault as having a “devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away”.
Weinstein, who was physically unable to stand, appeared in court in a wheelchair. He denied the allegations but issued an apology to “anyone I may have hurt by my actions.”
Weinstein has spent several years in the New York jail system following trials on rape and abuse accusations. In 2020 he had been convicted of a similar charge, but that conviction was overturned by New York’s highest court in 2024 after the court found that he did not receive a fair trial.
He was retried in 2025 and again found guilty of a single charge of criminal sexual act. He remains in Bellevue Hospital’s prison ward due to multiple health concerns.
The case that led to the sentence relates to accusations that surfaced when the New York Times and the New Yorker published allegations in 2017 that set off the #MeToo movement and exposed a widespread sexual harassment culture in Hollywood.
Weinstein’s legal team has consistently maintained his innocence, and he claims he will be proven to be innocent. The judge, Curtis Farber, criticised Weinstein’s lack of responsibility during the sentencing.
Weinstein still awaits sentencing in California, where he was convicted in 2022 of raping and misogynistically assaulting an actress in a hotel room in 2013. An appeals court has ordered that he be re‑sentenced in that case following overturned New York convictions.
