Crown Prosecution Service says “there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction” after charging disgraced producer in 2022
Prosecutors in the U.K. announced Wednesday that they have discontinued indecent assault charges against Harvey Weinstein, citing in a statement, “there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service charged the disgraced producer in July 2022 in the aftermath of Weinstein’s conviction in sexual assault trials in both New York and Los Angeles trials; the New York conviction has since been thrown out, with a retrial pending.
In the U.K., Weinstein was facing two counts of indecent assault against one woman for an alleged incident that took place in Aug. 1996. The alleged victim — who is now in her 50s — was not identified, nor did the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) share any details about their investigation or the accusations when the charges were announced in July 2022.
However, “Following a review of the evidence in this case, the CPS has decided to discontinue criminal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein,” Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS’ Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement (via the BBC).
The CPS did not elaborate on why there was no longer “a realistic prospect of conviction” but added that both parties — Weinstein and the alleged victim — were notified of their decision.
Weinstein has had a run of legal victories in recent months, starting with the overturned conviction in the New York trial. He was initially found guilty of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and rape in the third degree at the original trial in February 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
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The conviction was overturned in April 2024 by the New York State Court of Appeals. In a 77-page decision, the majority of judges decided that the judge who oversaw Weinstein’s trial, Justice James M. Burke, should not have allowed prosecutors to let accusers whose allegations were not part of the charges against him to testify in the trial. A potential retrial is currently slated for November.
Weinstein, who was recently hospitalized with COVID and double pneumonia, remains behind bars pending the New York trial due to his 16-year sentence following the Los Angeles trial.
