LONDON (AFP) – British prosecutors said on Thursday they were dropping the sexual assault case against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, saying there was “no realistic prospect of conviction”.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced in June 2022 that it had given police permission to prosecute the disgraced 72-year-old film producer on two counts of indecent assault.
But the CPS, which is responsible for prosecutions in England and Wales, announced it had decided to “discontinue criminal proceedings” against him.
The crime against the woman, now in her 50s, is said to have taken place in London in 1996.
“Following a review of the evidence in this case, the CPS has decided to discontinue the criminal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein,” said Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS special crime and counter-terrorism unit.
“The CPS has a duty to continue to investigate all cases and has determined that there is no longer a realistic prospect of a conviction.”
Weinstein was convicted in New York in 2020 of raping and sexually assaulting former actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and forcing former production assistant Mimi Haley to perform oral sex on him in 2006.
He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
But in April, the New York State Supreme Court issued a shocking reversal, overturning Weinstein's conviction on sex crimes charges, in one of the defining cases of the #MeToo movement.
The appeals court ordered a new trial, finding that the judge erred in allowing testimony from additional women who were allegedly abused by Weinstein but not named in the indictment.
A retrial could begin as early as November.
In July, New York prosecutors also announced they were investigating “additional violent sexual assaults” by Weinstein that are not subject to the statute of limitations.
