A Harvey Weinstein victim whose testimony was critical in convicting the disgraced movie mogul of additional sexual assault charges has spoken out in a new interview.
Weinstein, 70, was sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison on Thursday after being found guilty of raping Evgeniya Chernyshova, who was known only as Jane Doe 1 throughout the trial and sentencing.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ms Chernyshova, 43, said she had chosen to reveal her identity after being encouraged to by her daughter and because she was tired of hiding.
“I want my life back. I’m Evgeniya, I’ve been raped. This is my story,” the former actor and model told The Hollywood Reporter.
Weinstein begged for mercy in a California courtroom as a judge all but ensured the disgraced Hollywood film producer will spend the rest of his life in prison.
He was already serving a 23-year sentence in New York, after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in that jurisdiction in 2020.
Weinstein was found guilty by a jury in December of three counts of rape and sexual assault of Ms Chernyshova after he forced his way into her Beverly Hills hotel room in 2013.
Ms Chernyshova’s brave testimony proved critical to the prosecution, as the jury acquitted Weinstein of the sexual battery of a massage therapist and failed to reach verdicts on counts involving two other women during the same trial.
Addressing the judge during Thursday’s sentencing, she said: “Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman. I valued myself and the relationship I had with God. I was excited about my future. Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage.”
Ms Chernyshova told The Hollywood Reporter how after reporting the rape to police in 2017, she had been prevented from sharing her story with other victims and telling friends what she had been through.
“I thought it was a good decision to protect my kids. But it was a horrible decision for myself because I’ve been cut off from everyone. It isn’t right to go through this hell alone,” she said.
Ms Chernyshova said she only met Weinstein briefly at a film festival in Rome prior to the 2013 sexual assault.
She was staying at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel during Oscars week, and had gone back to her room to change outfits when she received a call from the front desk to say she had a guest downstairs.
Weinstein took the phone and told her he had to talk to her, and then appeared at her hotel door demanding to be let in, she told The Hollywood Reporter.
She said she didn’t immediately feel in danger, but then Weinstein removed his jacked and started getting angry.
“Something clicked, like a change in his eye,” she told the entertainment news site. “I realised that something was wrong.”
Ms Chernyshova, who was married at the time, said she showed Weinstein her wedding ring and photos of her children to try to dissuade him from attacking her.
But he ignored her pleas, and dragged her into a bedroom and assaulted her, she said.
In the decade since, she said she has since battled depression, and separated from her husband, who has since died.
During a conversation about sexual assault with her daughter in September 2017, Ms Chernyshova said they made a pact to report both of their experiences to police.
The next month, the New York Times and the New Yorker published bombshell reports about Weinstein’s decades of sexual offending.
After hiring an experienced Los Angeles trial attorney Dave Ring, she reported the assault to LAPD detectives.
On the first day of Weinstein’s January 2020 trial in New York for sexual assault, the LAPD charged him with the rape and sexual assault of Ms Chernyshova.
She told The Hollywood Reporter that testifying in the trial had been “brutal”, as Weinstein’s defence attorneys had tried to harass and humiliate her.
Ms Chernyshova told in the interview how she had burst into tears after hearing the guilty verdicts come back in December.
Jurors later told the Associated Press that her composure on the witness stand was crucial in allowing the divided group to reach consensus on her accusations.
