Model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez talks to the media following film producer Harvey Weinstein's guilty verdict in his sexual assault trial in New York, US February 24, 2020. Reuters/Carlo Allegri Model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez talks to the media followin
Celebrities and activists welcomed the guilty verdict against Harvey Weinstein, the Academy Award-winning producer who had reigned as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood.
A jury convicted Weinstein on Monday of sexual assault and third-degree rape but acquitted him on the most serious charges He faces up to 25 years in prison. Weinstein had pleaded not guilty and said any sex was consensual..
Accusations against Weinstein helped fuel the #MeToo movement of women speaking out about mistreatment. Hollywood celebrities also founded Times Up, an organization dedicated to fighting sexual harassment and abuse across all industries.
Below are some of the reactions to the Weinstein verdict.
- "Gratitude to the brave women who’ve testified and to the jury for seeing through the dirty tactics of the defense," actress Rosanna Arquette, who has said she resisted unwanted sexual advances by Weinstein, wrote on Twitter.
"We will change the laws in the future so that rape victims are heard and not discredited and so that it’s easier for people to report their rapes," she added.
- "While it is disappointing that today's outcome does not deliver the true, full justice that so many women deserve, Harvey Weinstein will now forever be known as a convicted serial predator," the Silence Breakers, a group of Weinstein accusers, said in a statement.
"This has been a flawed process from the beginning but has further exposed the difficulties women face in coming forward to tell the truth about powerful abusers," the statement added.
- "This trial - and the jury’s decision today - marks a new era of justice, not just for the Silence Breakers, who spoke out at great personal risk, but for all survivors of harassment, abuse, and assault at work," Time's Up president and CEO Tina Tchen said in a statement.
"The jury's verdict sends a powerful message to the world of just how much progress has been made since the Weinstein Silence Breakers ignited an unstoppable movement," Tchen added.
"While we celebrate this historic moment, our fight to fix the broken system that has allowed serial abusers like Harvey Weinstein to abuse women in the first place continues. Abusers everywhere and the powerful forces that protect them should be on notice: There’s no going back," she said.
- "Let us continue to believe and support survivors, from the courts to our classrooms to the halls of Congress," actress Dominique Huett, who has accused Weinstein of sexual assault, wrote on Twitter.
