Jury selection is beginning in the trial of Harvey Weinstein, once one of Hollywood’s most successful producers, who was behind hit films including Shakespeare in Love, The King’s Speech and Pulp Fiction. In 2017, dozens of sexual assault allegations emerged against the movie mogul. Now he is standing trial and could face life in jail if convicted.

Jury selection begins on Monday in Manhattan, New York. It is likely to take around two weeks to select 12 jurors, before the trial gets under way in earnest. He faces five charges including rape and predatory sexual assault relating to two unnamed accusers. He is charged with raping one woman in a hotel room in the New York borough in 2013, and performing a forcible sex act on the second woman in 2006. He denies the charges.

The criminal charges stem back to May 2018, when Mr Weinstein turned himself in to New York police. He was then charged with rape and several other counts of sexual abuse against the two women. Mr Weinstein, who was released on $1m bail the following month, pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault in the New York Supreme Court.(BBC)…[+]