Harvey Weinstein freed on $1 million bail after being charged with rape and sex crimes against two women

Handcuffed and ashen-faced, Harvey Weinstein appeared in a New York courtroom on Friday to face charges of rape and sexual assault, marking the downfall of a Hollywood titan.

It was a moment that many of the dozens of women who have made allegations against the mogul, sparking a worldwide movement, never thought they would see.

“The man who pinned me down had handcuffs on him today,” said Rose McGowan, who was one of the first women to accuse Weinstein in an October 2017 article in the New York Times.

“He was the cult leader of Hollywood - their king. I actually didn’t believe this day would come.”

Since the first women spoke out, more than 70 have come forward to accuse the 66-year-old of sexual harassment and rape, and the #MeToo movement has seen allegations about dozens of other public figures come to light.

Mr Weinstein was already being investigated by police in London, Los Angeles and New York, but in New York the NYPD and federal agents were growing increasingly frustrated at the pace of the process, chafing at the seeming reluctance of the district attorney to move forwards with prosecution.

On Friday Cyrus Vance finally made his move, agreeing with Weinstein’s lawyers that the New Yorker hand himself in at the Tribeca police station near the home he once lived in, in Manhattan’s West Village.

Mr Weinstein appeared relaxed as he walked into the station at 7:20am through a thick crowd of photographers and reporters held back by metal barriers. He carried under his arm two books including a biography of director Elia Kazan, who became a notorious figure during the McCarthy era after helping root out suspected Hollywood Communists.

He smiled for the assembled press as he left the police station en route to court after having his fingerprints and mugshot taken.

But his demeanour changed as he listened in court to the charges against him - rape in the first and third degrees from an incident in 2013, and a criminal sex act against another woman in 2004.

He grimaced as a New York assistant attorney described him as a man who "used his position, money and power to lure young women into situations where he was able to violate them sexually".

It was unclear who had filed the rape charges, but the other charges are believed to relate to accusations made by Lucia Evans, a former actress who claimed that the studio boss forced her into oral sex during a business meeting.

He was granted a $1 million bail and forced to surrender his passport and wear an electronic tag that restricts his movements to New York and the neighboring state of Connecticut. 

Benjamin Brafman, Mr Weinstein’s lawyer described by The New Yorker as “the last of the big-time defence attorneys”, and the man who defended Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said Mr Weinstein would “vigorously defend himself” against charges of rape and sexual crimes against two women.

Evans confirmed to magazine that she was pressing charges against Mr Weinstein.

“At a certain point, you have to think about the greater good of humanity, of womankind,” she said.

Evans told the magazine that she had been informed by NYPD officers that they might not be able to bring charges without her cooperation.

“They said that if I do nothing, Harvey would walk,” she said. “I think the significance hit all at once.”

Asia Argento, another of Weinstein’s accusers, on Friday tweeted an image of champagne corks popping.

A number of the allegations against Mr Weinstein from women including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow are thought to fall outside of the 10-year statute of limitations law that existed in the US at the time of the alleged incidents.

Mr Vance, the district attorney, was under additional pressure given that in 2015 he had declined to prosecute Mr Weinstein when Ambra Battilana, an Italian model, was guided by the NYPD to wear a wire and record his incriminating comments.

He had insisted there was not enough evidence to prosecute Mr Weinstein, and in March defended the pace of the investigation, saying they had to be confident of conviction.

That did not stop Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, opening an investigation into Mr Vance’s handling of the 2015 incident – a move which enraged the district attorney.

Mr Brafman, one of the most experienced and aggressive trial lawyers in New York, said he intended to cross-examine the women who had accused Mr Weinstein and that a 12-person jury would find him not guilty – if a “fair-minded” group could be assembled.

He said they will argue that his interactions with women were always consensual and that Mr Weinstein “did not invent the casting couch” - insisting he should not be tried for the prevailing Hollywood culture, and he had not acted criminally.

“My job is not to defend behaviour,” he said. “My job is to defend against accusations that something was criminal.

“Mr Weinstein did not invent the casting couch. That’s not what this is about. It’s whether you committed a criminal act, and Mr Weinstein vigorously denies that.”

Evans is already braced for the challenge ahead. 

“I think everyone’s self-preservation mechanism kicks in when they make a big life decision such as this,” she told the New Yorker. 

“What is it going to mean to you? How is it going to affect your life, your family, your friends?”

But, she added: “I know how this has changed my life for the worse.

"How he took away my self-esteem and personal power. And knowing I can take it back, and stop him from doing that to another woman, I couldn’t let that go.”