British police are investigating three more allegations of sexual assault against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The attacks are said to have occurred in London between 2010 and 2015, as well as an incident of historic sexual assault from the late 1980s. The cases involve two different victims.
The UK claims follow a string of allegations against Mr Weinstein of harassment, abuse and rape made by actors in the US, including Angelina Jolie, Rose McGowan and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Police in America have launched investigations into several of the allegations, including rape and sexual assault. Mr Weinstein denies ever having non-consensual sex.
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The Oscar body's board of governors, including Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Whoopi Goldberg, voted on Saturday to remove the disgraced executive from the organisation's ranks over the allegations. The British film academy Bafta has suspended the producer and last week Mr Weinstein's wife, the British designer Georgina Chapman, said she was leaving him.
British soap actress Lysette Anthony, who appeared alongside Hugh Grant and in Woody Allen's 1992 comedy Husbands and Wives, told The Sunday Times that Mr Weinstein raped her in the hallway of her home in London after the pair had developed a friendship.
Ms Anthony, 52, says she met the producer when she starred in the 1983 sci-fi film Krull and that the attack happened a few years later.
After years of attempting to forget what she called a “pathetic, revolting” attack that left her “disgusted and embarrassed”, she felt she had to report the incident to the police, telling the newspaper, “I can’t stand by and see all these brave women tell the truth and not stand up alongside them.”
Allegedly, Mr Weinstein had previously grabbed at the actress while he was half dressed. Ms Anthony was able to flee the scene.
A short time later, she says he arrived on her doorstep at 10am.
“He pushed me inside and rammed me up against the coat rack . . . He was trying to kiss me and shove inside me,” says Ms Anthony, who eventually “just gave up” on trying to push him away and “just let him get on with it”.
“It was pathetic, revolting. I remember lying in the bath later and crying.”
A mixture of embarrassment, that the attacker was not a stranger and and that she had not been threatened with a weapon contributed to her decision not to report the incident to the police at the time.
A second unnamed former Miramax employee said she was raped by Mr Weinstein in the basement apartment below the company’s offices in 1992. She is considering making a formal complaint to the police.
The three incidents are reported to have occurred in west London, Westminster and Camden in the 1980s, 2010 and 2011, and in Camden in 2015.
Through his spokeswoman,Mr Weinstein has “unequivocally denied” any allegations of non-consensual sex.
