British actress makes new rape allegation against Harvey Weinstein
A British actress has claimed disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her on more than one occasion during her first broadcast interview about the allegations.
Hollyoaks actress, Lysette Anthony is one of around 80 women who claim they were harassed or sexually assaulted by Weinstein. She has now alleged that he raped her on two occasions, first in her London home and subsequently in a hotel during the Cannes film festival.
Ms Anthony said she first met Weinsten when she was “made to go” to dinner with him while on a promotional tour when she was 18 or 19 during which time he was working as a journalist.
They rode in a horse drawn carriage and he told her he and his brother had aspirations to start a film company, she said.
According to Ms Anthony they exchanged numbers after the meeting and became “good friends” but she was “never flirtatious” with him.
Describing the first alleged rape she said: “I have this memory of one morning in my little basement flat.. Seeing this fat lump of a man stumbling down my steep little steps and… He knocked on the door, it was in the morning, he had a dressing gown on he pushed me against my coat rack and he raped me.
“He was heavy and fat and I was trying to get him off and giving up.”
In an interview with Channel 4 News, Ms Anthony has now alleged that Weinsten raped her a second time. She said after the first assault he and his assistants called her multiple times and contacted her US agent.
She later bumped into him at the Cannes Film Festival where she was promoting a movie, Ms Anthony said, claiming he came “waddling after me, pushing me into my little room… and raping me”.
Ms Anthony said she did not report the alleged rapes because she would have been “destroyed”. She also feared not being believed and thought she might lose her husband if she came forward.
She now wants to see Mr Weinsten found guilty of rape.
“Money in a pot would be very nice but that’s not what this is at all. I want 'rapist', I want 'serial predatory rapist'. Justice would look like ‘guilty’,” she said.
A spokesperson for Weinstein said “allegations are not certainties”. Weinstein is entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence in his upcoming trial, his representatives told Channel 4.
