Harvey Weinstein UK indecent assault case dropped over chance of conviction

Harvey Weinstein is no longer facing an indecent assault case in the United Kingdom.

The Crown Prosecution Service on Thursday confirmed it has "decided to discontinue criminal proceedings" against the disgraced movie producer after a review of the evidence.

"The CPS has a duty to keep all cases under continuous review and we have decided that there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction," Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement. "We have explained our decision to all parties. We would always encourage any potential victims of sexual assault to come forward and report to police and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met."

In a statement shared with USA TODAY, Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for Weinstein, said, "We are grateful for the decision and to know that in some parts of Western society justice is indeed still blind."

Engelmayer added, "Mr. Weinstein is appreciative and thankful towards those who worked hard to come to what he knows must have been a difficult conclusion."

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The decision comes more than two years after British prosecutors said in June 2022 that they had authorized two indecent assault charges against Weinstein, 72, following a Metropolitan Police investigation. The charges stemmed from the alleged assault of a woman in 1996.

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A lawyer for Weinstein, Mark Werksman, criticized English authorities for the move at the time, saying in a statement shared with USA TODAY, "This is another example of prosecution-by-ambush, where the authorities announce 26-year-old charges against Mr. Weinstein by anonymous accusers without first giving him a chance to address and rebut the allegations, in an effort to further tar-and-feather him in the public's eye."

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News of the discontinued U.K. case follows Weinstein's rape conviction being overturned by a New York appeals court in April. The court found that the judge in Weinstein's trial had improperly admitted "irrelevant" and "prejudicial" testimony.

"It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant's character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them," the opinion stated.

Weinstein must still complete a 16-year sentence following his 2022 rape conviction in California. In August, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that Weinstein will remain in New York while awaiting a retrial there.

Contributing: Maria Puente and Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY