Content Warning: Rape, Sexual assault.

The last time we checked in on Harvey Weinstein, his lawyers were trying to broker deals to clear out the bulk of his accusers in the US, Canada, Britain and Ireland, as he prepared for his criminal trial on charges that include rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault.

The Weinstein criminal trial is now underway, and his alleged victims have started to give their testimony.

Most recently, former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haleyi took the stand to give her harrowing account of how Weinstein “held her down and sexually assaulted her inside his SoHo apartment”, reports The Daily Beast.

Weinstein is on trial for five sex-crime charges. Apart from the attack on Haleyi, he is also facing charges related to Jessica Mann, who said Weinstein raped her inside a New York hotel room in 2013.

The women are among 80 alleged victims who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

Weinstein helped Haleyi to secure a job on the set of Project Runway. She continued her professional relationship with him, and was told that she could return for the following season of the show.

Soon after, Weinstein invited her on a trip to Paris for a fashion show. While initially stating she would “think about” his invitation “to be polite,” she said she ultimately declined when his assistant later called to confirm. Hours later, she said Weinstein “showed up unannounced” at her East Village apartment building, where he questioned her decision and ultimately barged into her home.

The assistant that called her up must have been the assistant who worked for Weinstein before Sandeep Rehal, who described, in great detail, the horrors of working for the producer between 2013 and 2015.

Back to Haleyi’s testimony:

“He wasn’t leaving. His tone was persistent and insistent,” she said. “At one point, he said, ‘OK, take your roommate, she can come too… she can be your chaperone or whatever.’”

She later accepted an invitation to Los Angeles. Weinstein invited her to his apartment, and that’s when her testimony gets really harrowing.

The following is not an easy read.

…after she entered the apartment, Weinstein “lunged” at her and tried to kiss her, she testified. When she tried to distance herself from him, telling him she was not interested in him romantically, Weinstein backed her into his bedroom and forced his mouth on her genitals, Haleyi said.

“I fell backward onto the bed and I tried to get up and he pushed me down,” she said. “I had expressed during this entire time that I didn’t want to—I just said, ‘No, no, no. I don’t want this to happen.’”

“He held me down on the bed and he forced himself on me orally. I was mortified. I was being raped,” she added. “Ultimately, after a while, I checked out.”

Haleyi said she told the producer she was having her period to get him to stop—but he responded by “yanking” out her tampon and continuing the assault.

“I was just trying to tell him anything so he would stop,” Haleyi testified.

Haleyi didn’t go to the police, for the same reasons that many rape survivors feel that they can’t report rape.

“I decided that going to the police was not an option for me. I was on a tourist visa,” she said. “Also, Harvey has a lot more power and resources, and I really didn’t think I would stand a chance.”

Haleyi was born in Finland and raised in Sweden.

Weeks later, alleges Haleyi, he assaulted her again in a hotel room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel.

She said that unlike the last time, she didn’t resist the assault and just “laid there” and endured it as “he had intercourse with me.” During the encounter, Weinstein called her a “whore” and “bitch,” she testified.

“I just went numb. I thought, ‘Here we go again,” she said. “It was deeply embarrassing.”

Her testimony follows that of The Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who testified last week that Weinstein raped her inside her Manhattan apartment in 1993.

The trial is ongoing, and as more women take the stand, more horrifying stories are likely to be told.

Weinstein is the ultimate example of what happens when someone has too much power and money, and works in an industry that doesn’t hold powerful people (men) accountable for their actions.

[sources:dailybeast]