“I sincerely apologise to anyone I have hurt,” he added, while continuing to maintain his innocence during remarks met by loud groans inside the court.
After sentencing, his spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told AFP that Weinstein planned to appeal the latest sentence and conviction.
“It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Harvey Weinstein is being sentenced not only for the crime of which he was convicted, but for who he is and what his name has come to represent,” he said, referencing the #MeToo movement.
‘Courage’
Judge Curtis Farber slammed Weinstein as a “sexual predator” who had failed to take responsibility for his actions.
“You had it all. Your legacy could have been cemented with greatness. But you threw it all away by assaulting Miriam Haley,” Judge Farber said.
Prosecutors had sought 20 years in prison for Weinstein, while his lawyers warned that a longer sentence would likely mean he would die in prison.
Haley said after the hearing that she believed the 15-year prison term “was fair … I’m happy with it”.
She earlier told the court that she had suffered a “life sentence” and had post-traumatic stress disorder after Weinstein assaulted her in New York.
She said that Weinstein “abused his position of power” and that she “felt embarrassed that he thought I was so insignificant that he dared to do something like this”.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg praised Haley for her “powerful, moving and eloquent” testimony.
“I’m moved, as we should all be moved, by their courage and their steadfastness through what has obviously been a challenging process,” he told reporters.
#MeToo movement
Weinstein once ruled Hollywood as a kingpin powerful enough to make or break projects and careers.
But investigations by the New Yorker and the New York Times exposed a raft of abusive behaviour and prompted an avalanche of allegations from more than 80 people.
Weinstein is also to be resentenced in California for the 2013 rape and assault of an actress in a Los Angeles hotel room, after an appeals court in June upheld the conviction but vacated his 16-year prison term.
Meanwhile, a New York judge in May declared a mistrial in a separate case after jurors failed to reach a verdict on allegations he sexually assaulted actor Jessica Mann.
It was the third time Mann had taken the stand against Weinstein after a 2020 guilty verdict was overturned because witnesses were mishandled, and a 2025 case ended in mistrial after a jury-room feud.
Prosecutors later said they would not pursue a fourth trial in Mann’s case.
Still, she attended the court on Wednesday in support of Haley with Polish-born actor Kaja Sokola: Weinstein was acquitted of sexual assault against her in a 2025 retrial.
– AFP