Britain stops criminal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein

The Crown Prosecution Service decided to discontinue proceedings because there was ‘no longer a realistic prospect of conviction’

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Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 while already serving a 23-year sentence in New York. Photo: AP

Published: 8:55pm, 5 Sep 2024

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein will not face charges of indecent assault in Britain, prosecutors announced on Thursday.

The Crown Prosecution Service, which in 2022 authorised two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein, said it decided to discontinue proceedings because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.

“We have explained our decision to all parties,” the CPS said in a statement. “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.”

Weinstein became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when women began to go public with accounts of his behaviour. After the revelations emerged, British police said they were investigating multiple allegations of sexual assault that reportedly took place between the 1980s and 2015.

In June 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service said it had authorised London’s Metropolitan Police Service to file two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein in relation to an alleged incident that occurred in London in 1996. The victim was in her 50s at the time of the announcement.

Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse in 2020. Photo: AP

Unlike many other countries, Britain does not have a statute of limitations for rape or sexual assault.