(Newswire.net— March 14, 2020) — Disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. Weinstein showed a “lack of remorse” prosecutors said.
A New York court found him guilty last month, putting a stop to the seemingly endless dramatic saga of the bruising of one of contemporary Hollywood’s most powerful figures.
Sixty-seven-year-old Weinstein appeared in court in a wheelchair.
His lawyers asked the judge to be mild in their sentencing because even the smallest five-year sentence would be a “life sentence” for him.
However, prosecutors argued Weinstein should be given the maximum possible sentence given his “lifetime of abuse” towards women and the “lack of remorse” for his actions, BBC reports.
Weinstein addressed the court on Wednesday, saying he had “deep remorse,” and that he is “completely confused” by what had happened and what caused the avalanche of commentary to form the #MeToo movement.
Dozens of women then publicly accused Weinstein of sexual harassment and even rape.
He has consistently denied that he did anything wrong, and these are the first charges that finally led Weinstein to court.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr thanked the court for the tough sentence, saying it put “predators and abusive partners” elsewhere in society “on notice”.
“Harvey Weinstein deployed nothing less than an army of spies to keep them silent. But they refused to be silent, and they were heard,” he said of the women who testified. “Their words took down a predator and put him behind bars, and gave hope to survivors of sexual violence all across the world.”
One of the most famous Hollywood producers has worked on numerous award-winning films, including Shakespeare in Love and The King’s Speech.
The films he has worked on have received a total of 81 Oscars since 1999.
In the 1970s, he was one of the founders of Miramax Enterprises.
He left Miramax in 2005 and founded the Weinstein Co Company with his brother Bob.
As the accusations against him began to pile up, his Weinstein Co Company fired him but no one wanted to work with the label Harvey founded so the company soon declared bankruptcy.