Here's a sentence that's not fun to type: Harvey Weinstein faced another legal victory today. According to the BBC, the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will not pursue indecent assault charges against the disgraced producer. The agency said that it had reviewed the evidence and "there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction."
In 2022, the CPS charged Weinstein with two counts of indecent assault against a woman. The alleged assaults were said to have taken place in London in 1996. Those charges have both now been dropped.
Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement that the organization had "explained our decision to all parties." "Following a review of the evidence in this case, the CPS has decided to discontinue criminal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein," the statement continued. "The CPS has a duty to keep all cases under continuous review and we have decided that there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction."
"We would always encourage any potential victims of sexual assault to come forward and report to police and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met," Ferguson added.
In April, Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction was also overturned in New York after a court determined 4-3 that allowing women to testify about allegations that weren't officially part of the case was prejudicial against the producer. Weinstein was in the middle of serving a 23-year sentence when the ruling was announced. He is still being held in prison while he awaits a retrial, which has been tentatively set for November. "We believe in this case, and we will be retrying this case," prosecutors said when the retrial was announced. "It was a strong case in 2020… and it remains a strong case in 2024."
Weinstein was also sentenced to serve an additional 16 years in prison in a separate trial in L.A. in 2022.
