Four more women have levied sexual assault allegations against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein in a new lawsuit filed in New York court on Thursday.
Court documents — spanning nearly three decades from 1984 to 2013 — detail a now-familiar pattern of abuse, deceit, and intimidation that enabled Weinstein to continue abusing women for years.
The first plaintiff, Jane Doe I, alleges that she met Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984, when she was trying to break into the film industry and wanted to get funding for a documentary she was producing. The woman alleges that following a professional dinner, Weinstein lured her back to his hotel suite, “pinned her against the suite’s front door, jammed his tongue into her mouth and fondled her breasts and vagina.” When she told someone what had happened to her, Weinstein warned her to keep quiet, threatening to blackball her from the film industry.
Another plaintiff, a 43-year-old woman from Tennessee, alleges that in 1994, when she was 17 years old, she met with Weinstein in his hotel room under the guise of discussing her film career. She alleges that he then “forced her to remove her clothes and he climbed on top of her and demanded she perform oral sex on him,” threatening her with violence if she told anyone.
Another plaintiff alleges that in 2008, when she was 26, she met Weinstein at the New York City eatery Cipriani’s, where they set up a later meeting at his Soho apartment. At that meeting, “after she declined his initial advances, Weinstein threatened that he was not going to let Plaintiff leave the apartment unless she did what he wanted, and Weinstein raped her,” the suit alleges.
The final plaintiff, a 35-year-old Hungarian woman, says she met Weinstein at the Venice Film Festival in 2013. They arranged to have a business meeting at his hotel suite a few months later. During the meeting, the suit alleges, Weinstein “grabbed Plaintiff by the back of the head, pushing it down onto his penis, thereby forcing her to fellate him to completion.” Again, she was afraid to come forward for fear of career reprisal.
Weinstein’s history of sexual assault first came to light in 2017, following bombshell New York Times and New Yorker investigations reporting on allegations against him. More than 80 women ultimately came forward to accuse him of abuse.
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence for third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sexual act. “Mr Weinstein intends to defend against the claims filed anonymously against him yesterday,” his attorney told BBC News.