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A massage therapist testified that she repeatedly kept herself alone with Harvey Weinstein after he sexually assaulted her, a humiliation and embarrassment that kept her silent for years.
The woman testified that in 2010, when she was 28, after a brief meeting with Weinstein through a friend, she was hired to give him a massage in his hotel room in Beverly Hills.
About 40 minutes later, he cut the date short, and while she was washing her hands in the bathroom, Weinstein walked in, blocked the door, and started masturbating in front of her.
“This is inappropriate! Can you go back to the other room and put your clothes on?”
She started crying, saying, “I was so scared. I thought I was going to be raped.”
She said Weinstein blocked the door, then pushed her against the wall and touched her breasts before finishing.
The woman will appear in court by Jane Doe, the second of five women Weinstein has accused of sexual assault, to come forward at his trial.
The Associated Press does not usually name people who claim to have been sexually abused.
After the incident, Weinstein called and texted her repeatedly, the woman said.
More than a month later, she reluctantly agreed to see him again and promised not to have sex. But she testified that Weinstein did open his robe and exposed him during that massage.
She said she refused to take any money and cried that she was “disgusted”. Disgusted that this happened to me, I just stood there.”
“That’s one of the reasons I don’t want to come forward,” she said, “because it’s embarrassing.”
She said she saw Weinstein again a few months later, when she introduced him to a friend who was publishing a coffee table book about Los Angeles.
She thought she could avoid being alone with him, but Weinstein asked to speak to her alone, and he started masturbating again and walked up to her, grabbing her breasts again.
“I screamed this time,” she said.
When asked why she didn’t go to the police, she said: “I was humiliated, I was scared.”
“I work for high-end clients who trust me,” she said.
“If I say publicly that I was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein and I don’t win, I can’t work with high-profile clients, and that’s what I’m all about.”
He was charged with one count of sexual assault against the woman and faces a total of 11 counts of rape and sexual assault in California.
He served 23 years for his New York conviction.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and has denied engaging in any non-consensual sexual activity.
The woman’s willingness to see Weinstein again after the initial alleged assault may have been at the heart of her questioning by his defense on Thursday.
She said the first person she told was actor Mel Gibson, one of her clients and friends.
He is expected to testify later in the trial.
The question involuntarily came up when she massaged Gibson, and the actor-director suggested a movie he might be working on with Weinstein.
“I was shocked and started crying,” she said.
“He was the first person I ended up confessing to me about what happened. I told him he sexually assaulted me, but I didn’t want to reveal all the details and I felt embarrassed and humiliated.”
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