British police are investigating five sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, according to multiple reports.

One of the plaintiffs is British actress Lysette Anthony, who plays Marnie Nightingale in Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. She said that Weinstein raped her in the late Eighties, and that she reported the attack to police last week.

Scotland Yard has confirmed it is investigating five allegations of sexual assault against the Hollywood film producer, the Associated Press reports. Three of the allegations were brought by the same unnamed woman, pertaining to sexual assaults allegedly carried out in London in 2010, 2011 and 2015.

Officers are also looking into an allegation of sexual assault passed on to the Met by Merseyside police, according to The Guardian.

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A third woman said on Sunday 15 October that Weinstein assaulted her in London in 1992.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police force said that officers from the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command unit are now investigating the allegations. There is no suggestion that any of the allegations involve child abuse.  

“On 11 October, Merseyside police referred an allegation of sexual assault to the Metropolitan Police Service,” said a Scotland Yard spokesman. “It is alleged that a man sexually assaulted a woman in the late Eighties in west London.

“On 14 October, further allegations were made against the same man. It is alleged that the man sexually assaulted a woman in Westminster in 2010 and 2011, and in Camden in 2015.” 

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Lysette Anthony said that she told Merseyside police on Wednesday that she had been raped by Weinstein when she was in her late 20s.

She told the newspaper that she first met Weinstein in New York in the mid-Eighties, when she was a successful model and rising actress who had recently appeared in the sci-fi film Krull. A few years later, the producer came to London and invited Anthony to visit him at a flat he was renting in Chelsea.

“The next thing I knew he was half undressed and he grabbed me,” she said. “It was the last thing I expected and I fled.”

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“That was when the predatory stalking began.”

Anthony alleged that Weinstein raped her after turning up at her home one morning. “He pushed me inside and rammed me up against the coat rack… He was trying to kiss me and shove inside me.”

She said that she tried to push him away but that he was too heavy. “Finally I just gave up.”

Anthony was interviewed for The Sunday Times by her friend, the journalist Charlotte Metcalf. Metcalf said that Anthony first told her about the rape “15 years ago”.

“The moment I first heard of the allegations being made about Weinstein’s predatory sexual behaviour, I thought of Lysette,” Metcalf wrote.

There is no statute of limitations for reporting sexual offences in the UK, meaning that sexual abuse, assault and harassment victims can go to police no matter how long ago the alleged crime occurred. Per the Crown Prosecution Service: “It is now widely accepted that delay in reporting is not indicative of a false allegation and prosecutors should be proactive in encouraging the police to investigate thoroughly to uncover any available supporting evidence.”

Through a spokesperson, Weinstein has “unequivocally denied” any allegations of non-consensual sex.

For more on the Harvey Weinstein case, click here.

Images: Rex Features