Opening statements began Tuesday in the rape retrial of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in New York, marking the third time this particular charge has come before a jury. Prosecutors told jurors that Weinstein used his formidable industry influence to exploit a vulnerable young woman, framing the case as fundamentally about coercion and control. "This case will come down to power, to control and to manipulation," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White told the court, adding that Weinstein "was used to getting his way" and that "behind closed doors, power meant him taking what he wanted from the victim."

The charge at the centre of the retrial relates to an alleged rape in March 2013 in a Manhattan hotel room. The complainant, Jessica Mann, was at the time a 27-year-old hairstylist and aspiring actress who had met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party in late 2012 or early 2013. Prosecutors described her as a "fragile and sheltered young woman" whose difficult background — including childhood abuse and a prior sexual assault — made her, in their words, the "perfect target." According to Mann's testimony at earlier proceedings, Weinstein trapped her in the hotel room, ignored her protestations, and she ultimately relented because she "just wanted to get out." The prosecution has said it will call a forensic psychologist to help jurors understand the sometimes counterintuitive behaviour of sexual assault victims, including why Mann maintained contact with Weinstein afterwards.

The defence, led by attorney Jacob Kaplan, argued that any sexual contact was consensual, pointing to roughly four years of ongoing communication between Mann and Weinstein — including what he described as "loving and supportive" emails — that continued until other women went public with allegations in 2017. "This case will be her word against her own word," Kaplan told jurors, suggesting Mann concealed the nature of their relationship to avoid the perception that she was trading sexual favours for career advancement.

This retrial comes after a convoluted legal history. Weinstein's original New York conviction was overturned on appeal. A retrial last year ended in a mistrial when the jury foreperson refused to continue deliberating amid an internal dispute; before that breakdown, the jury had convicted Weinstein of sexual assault against film producer Miriam Haley and acquitted him on a charge involving actress Kaja Sokola. Weinstein is separately serving a 16-year prison sentence in California for the rape of a European actress, meaning he will remain incarcerated regardless of the outcome here. He appeared in court wheelchair-bound, and has claimed he faces threats at Rikers Island jail complex in the Bronx, where he is currently held.

The case remains a landmark moment in the broader reckoning with sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry. Weinstein, once one of Hollywood's most powerful figures — an Academy Award-winning producer behind films such as "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love" — became a central target of the #MeToo movement after 2017 investigations by the New Yorker and the New York Times brought allegations from more than 80 women into the public domain. The retrial, expected to last up to four weeks, is being closely watched as a test of how courts and juries continue to grapple with questions of consent, power, and the credibility of sexual assault accounts nearly a decade after those revelations transformed public debate.