'For the sake of truth': A Weinstein victim's decision to take the stand again

On Wednesday, 12 New York jurors found disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting Miriam Haley in 2006, after his previous sex crimes conviction in the state was overturned last year.

When Miriam Haley heard the news last year that a New York court had thrown out a rape conviction against Harvey Weinstein, the man she helped put behind bars four years before, she was shocked.

In 2020, Ms Haley told a Manhattan courtroom every detail of the time Weinstein sexually assaulted her in his New York apartment in 2006.

This time, she was planning to turn down prosecutors, not wanting to put herself through it all again. But just weeks before the retrial, she saw a link to a new podcast series aimed at "exonerating" Weinstein.

"I just thought, I have to stand up for myself. I have to stand up for the truth," Ms Haley told the BBC.

She was one of three women to testify against Weinstein during his six-week retrial, accusing him of using his power as a Miramax Hollywood tycoon to sexually abuse young women.

Ultimately, the jury found Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting only Ms Haley. They acquitted him of sexually assaulting another woman, and a mistrial was declared on a third rape count.

The verdict "gives me hope - hope that there is new awareness around sexual violence and that the myth of the perfect victim is fading", Ms Haley said outside the Manhattan courthouse on Wednesday.

A court of appeals overturned Weinstein's previous conviction for sex crimes in New York last April. The judges found Weinstein's original trial was not fair because it included testimony from women who made allegations beyond the official charges against him.

In September, the 73-year-old was indicted on sexual assault charges for a new trial.

He pleaded not guilty and again vehemently denied the allegations. His lawyers argued at the retrial that his accs were "friends with benefits" who had consensual sex with him in exchange for work opportunities.

Those portrayals were insulting, said Ms Haley, adding that Weinstein's continued denial of the allegations pushed her to "keep showing up" in court.

Warning: This article contains distressing content

For this trial, Ms Haley spent four days on the stand - three more than she did the first time.

This trial, she could look straight at her assailant, who sat in a wheelchair next to the defence table, unlike during the first trial, when he was blocked by the judge's booth.

Going in, she worried, as she had in the previous trial, about how she would feel.

"Would I feel intimidated? Would I maybe even feel sorry for him":[]}