British prosecutors have dropped charges of indecent assault against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, announcing on Thursday that there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”
The Crown Prosecution Service, which authorized two charges against Weinstein in 2022, said in a statement that they had informed all parties of their decision. “We would always encourage any potential victims of sexual assault to come forward and report to police, and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met,” the statement added.
Weinstein emerged as a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement in 2017 when women began publicly sharing their accounts of his alleged behavior. Following these revelations, authorities investigated multiple allegations of sexual assault, reportedly occurring between the 1980s and 2015.
In June 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service authorized the Metropolitan Police Service to file two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein, relating to an alleged incident in London in 1996. The alleged victim was in her 50s at the time of the announcement.
Unlike many other countries, Britain does not have a statute of limitations for such crimes.
Weinstein, who maintains his innocence and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone, remains in custody in New York awaiting a retrial in Manhattan. According to prosecutors, he will begin serving a 16-year sentence in California for a separate rape conviction in Los Angeles after the retrial. In 2022, Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles while already serving a 23-year sentence in New York.
Earlier this year, his 2020 conviction in Manhattan was overturned by New York’s highest court, which ruled that the judge in the original trial improperly allowed testimony against Weinstein based on allegations not related to the case.
Weinstein, co-founder of the Miramax entertainment company and The Weinstein Company film studio, was once a powerful figure in Hollywood. He produced notable films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “The Crying Game.”