The following deals with sexual assault and may be triggering for some readers.
Your Honour,
The day my uncontrollable screams were heard from the witness room was the day my full voice came back into my power.
Those were the screams that wanted to come out while Harvey was raping me. Those were the screams of a terrified young woman reliving experiences of horrific violence against her body. Those were the screams that will forever haunt those who witnessed me.
These were the opening lines of Jessica Mann‘s victim impact statement at the sentencing of her rapist, Harvey Weinstein. Delivered in New York Criminal court on Wednesday, this was the once-aspiring actor’s opportunity to (at last) tell her full story, to share the ongoing pain caused by the 2013 rape.
She did that — powerfully, eloquently. But, like so many victims of sexual violence, she also was compelled to defend herself.
Watch: Salma Hayak was among the 90-plus women who levelled accusations against Weinstein.
Harvey Weinstein was the one who’d been convicted, the one ultimately sentenced to 23 years over her rape and the 2006 sexual assault of former TV production assistant, Mimi Haleyi.