One of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers was told by police to delete any files from her phone that she wanted to keep private, prosecutors have admitted.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the complainant was told by a detective to “delete anything she did not want anyone to see”.<\/p>\n
Mr Weinstein’s lawyer said the development “undermines” the case.<\/p>\n
The Hollywood producer faces charges involving alleged sex assaults on two women. Mr Weinstein denies the charges.<\/p>\n
“My office had asked Complainant 2 to produce any and all cell phones that she might have used during the time she interacted with the defendant,” Ms Illuzzi-Orbon wrote in a letter to Mr Weinstein’s lawyer, Ben Brafman.<\/p>\n
She adds, however, that the woman said she was then advised to remove files “before providing the phones to our office”.<\/p>\n
Despite this advice, the woman still provided the phones used to communicate with Mr Weinstein “without any deletions”, Ms Illuzzi-Orbon said.<\/p>\n
Mr Brafman later released a statement in response to the letter, saying the news “further undermines the integrity of an already deeply flawed indictment of Mr Weinstein”.<\/p>\n
He earlier requested that the entire case be dismissed.<\/p>\n
Last week\u00a0a charge against Mr Weinstein by actress Lucia Evans was dismissed by a judge in New York<\/a>\u00a0after she was said to have given a differing account of events.<\/p>\n Mr Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 70 women.<\/p>\n The accusations against him helped awaken\u00a0the #MeToo movement<\/a>, which has seen hundreds of women accusing high-profile men in business, government and entertainment of sexual abuse and harassment.<\/p>\n Mr Weinstein has agreed to wear a GPS tracker and to surrender his passport.<\/p>\n He also faces additional investigations in Los Angeles and London, and by the US federal government.<\/p>\n The 66-year-old, who has been on $1m (\u00a3750,000) bail since his arrest in May, denies having non-consensual sex, his lawyers have previously said.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"