Harvey Weinstein, the once-dominant Hollywood film producer whose downfall helped ignite the global #MeToo movement, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting a former television production assistant in 2006. Judge Curtis Farber of a Manhattan court handed down the sentence following Weinstein's conviction at a retrial last year, marking the latest chapter in a legal saga spanning nearly a decade. "You took what you wanted by force and you have never accepted responsibility," Farber told the 74-year-old Weinstein, adding that he had used his power as a Hollywood kingmaker to prey on women and treat them as "mere objects to be played with and discarded with impunity."

The case centres on Miriam Haley, a Finnish-born production assistant who worked briefly on the Weinstein-produced reality competition series "Project Runway." She testified that Weinstein forcibly sexually assaulted her at his Manhattan apartment after she accepted an invitation she felt she could not decline. Appearing in court Wednesday in tears, Haley told the judge: "Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away. It's a life sentence for me." She said Weinstein had hired private investigators to monitor her and that she had endured years of public ridicule by his supporters. Speaking afterwards, she said she was satisfied with the sentence but that Weinstein's remarks in court showed he "still feels entitled."

Weinstein, seated in a wheelchair and with his hands restrained, asked for mercy, citing his deteriorating health — including leukemia, congestive heart failure and kidney problems — and offered what he described as a sincere apology. Yet he simultaneously maintained his innocence. "I have to reiterate my innocence," he told the court, drawing visible head-shaking from some of his accusers seated in the gallery. His lawyers said he plans to appeal.

The path to Wednesday's sentencing was tortuous. Weinstein was first convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison — for assaulting Haley and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann — but New York's highest court overturned both convictions in 2024, ruling that testimony from other accusers whose allegations were not part of the case had prejudiced the trial. At his 2025 retrial, a jury convicted him again on the charge involving Haley, acquitted him of an allegation involving former model Kaja Sokola, and deadlocked on the charge involving Mann. A third trial on Mann's allegation ended in another hung jury in May; prosecutors subsequently dropped the charge after Mann said she could not bear to testify a fourth time. Having already served more than six years behind bars, Weinstein has approximately nine years remaining on his New York sentence. A separate and significant legal question remains in California, where he was convicted in 2022 of rape and sexual assault and originally sentenced to 16 years in prison. A California appeals court upheld those convictions but ordered resentencing, and a judge there will determine whether the two sentences run concurrently or consecutively — a decision that could effectively imprison Weinstein for the rest of his life.

Weinstein co-founded Miramax and later the Weinstein Company, producing acclaimed films including "Shakespeare in Love," "Pulp Fiction" and "Chocolat." His rapid fall from the peak of the entertainment industry began in 2017, when investigative reporting by the New York Times and the New Yorker published accounts from multiple women alleging decades of sexual misconduct — accusations that more than 100 women would eventually make. The public reckoning that followed gave momentum to the #MeToo movement worldwide. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who attended the sentencing alongside Weinstein's accusers, praised the survivors' courage and steadfastness. Haley's attorney, Gloria Allred, rejected suggestions that the case signals the end of the #MeToo era, telling reporters: "Women are empowered in a way they have never been before."