The tears and chilling testimony of a new victim in the Harvey Weinstein trial

He describes this attack as his “worst nightmare”. On Monday, November 14, at the Los Angeles courthouse bar, American actress Jennifer Siebel Newsom recounted the rape she accuses former producer Harvey Weinstein of. The former Hollywood tycoon is accused of rape and sexual assault by 5 women, for allegedly taking place between 2004 and 2013. According to American media variety, it was in tears that Jennifer Siebel Newsom gave her testimony, as prosecutor Marlene Martinez asked her to identify her alleged attacker. “She’s wearing a suit and blue tie and staring at me,” she replied, unable to contain her emotion at her.

Weinstein seemed interested in his work

The 48-year-old American said she met Weinstein at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005. She was a rising actress and producer at the time and didn’t have the notoriety she knows today, unlike Weinstein whom she described as “at the top of l ‘industry’ in the cinema of the time. “I felt there was a genuine interest in talking about my work,” she recalled of their early conversations. It is on the basis of this exchange that she would have accepted the producer’s invitation to meet again, again in Los Angeles. “He was interested in helping me in my career and wanted to tell me more about it to give me advice and support”explains.

“It’s like that in the industry”

It was at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, in the producer’s suite, that the meeting was to take place. “I didn’t know there was a danger,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom explained. It was there that Weinstein, after getting up in the direction of the bathroom, would call her for help. “I saw him touch himself, he grabbed me and tried to touch me,” Siebel Newsom said. “I just remember physically trying to back off,” she added. Faced with her reaction, Weinstein would have tried to tell her that in the industry it was like this, and in a certain way, to (her) threaten », before raping her. Jennifer Newsom explained that she did not contact the police after her attack because she did not feel safe. She reportedly later told only two of her friends about the incident, one of whom, actress Louisette Geiss, is also a Weinstein accuser.

This trial is Harvey Weinstein’s second. The 70-year-old man is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for rape and sexual assault. If he too is convicted of these crimes in Los Angeles, he risks more than 100 years in prison.