Harvey Weinstein’s driver claims he ferried sobbing actresses around for the disgraced Hollywood producer

The chauffeur who worked for Harvey Weinstein has claimed he drove sobbing actresses around Cannes to meet with the disgraced movie mogul.

Mickael Chemloul, who worked for Weinstein from 2008 to 2013, said he felt like he was delivering the young women "into the lion's mouth" as he ferried them around for the producer.

He claimed Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of women, flew into a rage and attacked him when prostitutes did not turn up to meet them in the French Riviera.

The driver said most of his work over the five-year-period was driving around young actresses and models for Weinstein.

"I had the impression of driving poor, innocent people, innocent women, taking them into the lion's mouth and couldn't say to them, 'Watch your step, it's dangerous'," Mr Chemloul, 56, told French news channel BFM TV.

"One that left the biggest impression on me was a woman who was a fan of his, who loved him, who had followed him for years.

"She gave her body, her soul, everything to this man because he promised her castings and to make a film which was never shot."

Mr Chemloul, who described comforting the crying women leaving Weinstein's company, separately told newspaper Nice-Matin that in July 2013 the producer turned violent when two prostitutes did not turn up near Saint-Tropez's Club 55.

"He became crazy and laid into me. From the moment he raised a hand to me, there was no doubt of me ever working for him again," he said.

Of the dozens of offences the 65-year-old is accused of at least one is said to have taken place in the French Riviera.

Actress Asia Argento told The New Yorker, in a piece published days after a bombshell investigation by The New York Times, that he forcibly performed oral sex on her at the Hotel du Cap in 1997 after being lured there under false pretences.

Weinstein, who has "unequivocally denied" allegations of non-consensual sex, is also being investigated by British police after women made five allegations against him spanning from the late 1980s to 2015.

In response to the allegations of sexual harassment, he has apologised but also said many of them are not true.

He stepped down from the board of The Weinstein Company on Tuesday after the studio he co-founded more than a decade ago sacked him from his role as a chairman.

US broadcaster Spike is also investigating claims his younger brother, Bob Weinstein, sexually harassed Amanda Segel, a former executive producer of sci-fi series The Mist.

A lawyer for the 62-year-old producer claimed she made "false and misleading assertions", adding there is "no way in the world" his client is guilty of sexual harassment.