LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Disgraced United States movie titan Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of the rape and sexual assault of a woman a decade ago, in what prosecutors said was part of his "reign of terror" over aspiring young actresses in Hollywood.
On Monday after two weeks of deliberation, a jury convicted him of three of the seven counts he faced — forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object — all relating to Jane Doe #1 in a Beverly Hills hotel room in February 2013.
The 70-year-old "Pulp Fiction" producer's victim in the Los Angeles case said Monday she hopes he "never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime."
"Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back," the woman, identified during the trial as Jane Doe #1, said in a statement.
The eight men and four women on the panel acquitted him of one charge of sexual battery by restraint involving another woman.
They did not reach a verdict on charges relating to the alleged assaults of two other women, one of whom was identified by her lawyers as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench declared a mistrial on those counts.
Weinstein faces up to 18 years in prison for the counts on which he was convicted, but aggravating factors could increase that to 24 years.
Attorneys will be back in court Tuesday for arguments as to sentencing.