English actress Lysette Anthony says Weinstein raped her

Screen star Lysette Anthony came forward last night to allege that she had been raped by Harvey Weinstein.

The model-turned-actress told police last week that she had been attacked by the movie mogul in London in the late 1980s.

She has now waived her right to anonymity to speak about what happened when she was a fast-rising star who was hailed as the ‘Face of the 80s’ by top photographer David Bailey.

British star Lysette Anthony (left in April this year, right in 1983) told police that Harvey Weinstein raped her at her London flat in the late Eighties

Ms Anthony, a mother-of-one, tweeted this image a few days ago before adding in a later message: : ¿Defiled, Harvey Weinstein, how to report a historic rape¿

Ms Anthony, a mother-of-one, tweeted this image a few days ago before adding in a later message: : ‘Defiled, Harvey Weinstein, how to report a historic rape’

The actress described how the attack happened when Weinstein – who knew Ms Anthony socially – went to her London home one morning and she answered the door in her dressing gown.

She said: ‘He pushed me inside and rammed me up against the coat rack in my tiny hall and started fumbling at my gown. He was trying to kiss me and shove inside me. It was disgusting.’

Ms Anthony tried to resist but was unable to fight off heavily-built Weinstein. She said: ‘Finally I just gave up. At least I was able to stop him kissing me.

‘As he ground himself against me and shoved inside me, I kept my eyes shut tight, held my breath and just let him get on with it.’

Weinstein then left. ‘It was pathetic, revolting,’ she told The Sunday Times. ‘I remember lying in the bath, crying.’

Ms Anthony had met Weinstein in the early 1980s, after which she would see him socially for lunch when he was in London.

That was until she went for a drink at his rented house in Chelsea on one occasion and he started to undress and ‘grabbed’ her before she fled. Weinstein then began to ‘stalk’ her until the attack.

Ms Anthony (pictured left in soap opera Hollyoaks) said she went to Weinstein's home for drinks when he 'grabbed' her but she managed to flee

Ms Anthony (pictured left in soap opera Hollyoaks) said she went to Weinstein’s home for drinks when he ‘grabbed’ her but she managed to flee

Ms Anthony (pictured in Woody Allen film Maris et Femmes in 1992) said Weinstein later called at her home, barged his way in, then attacked her in the hallway

Ms Anthony (pictured in Woody Allen film Maris et Femmes in 1992) said Weinstein later called at her home, barged his way in, then attacked her in the hallway

Her traumatic account comes as the Metropolitan Police said they were investigating an allegation of sexual assault in the 1980s in London, following a complaint made by a woman to Merseyside Police.

Ms Anthony lives in Liverpool, near the studios where the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks is filmed. The actress currently stars in show.

On Thursday she went to a police station in London to give evidence. Although too terrified for decades to tell the authorities of the attack, she came forward after several other women, including actress Asia Argento, revealed how they had been raped by Weinstein.

‘I can’t stand by and see all these women tell the truth and not stand alongside them,’ she said.

A few days ago, Ms Anthony tweeted: ‘Have just reported an historic crime to @MerseyPolice… feel sick… so sad.’ Beneath she posted a photo of a heart-shaped pink note with a ‘crime number’ written on it.

She also tweeted what appeared to be a series of three search terms: ‘Defiled, Harvey Weinstein, how to report a historic rape.’

On Tuesday she retweeted a statement by Ronan Farrow, the New Yorker magazine journalist who broke the story that Weinstein had been accused of rape.

Farrow had written: ‘While Weinstein and his representatives have said that the incidents were consensual, and were not widespread or severe, the women I spoke to tell a very different story.’

Weinstein has lost his lifetime membership of the Hollywood Academy after dozens of women came forward to say he attacked her

Weinstein has lost his lifetime membership of the Hollywood Academy after dozens of women came forward to say he attacked her

Ms Anthony got her big break in the 1992 film Husbands And Wives – directed by Ronan Farrow’s father, Woody Allen.

Born Lysette Chodzko, she is the only daughter of two actors – her mother Bernadette Milnes suffered from schizophrenia and manic depression. 

Ms Anthony starred in the BBC comedy Three Up, Two Down, and although not a Hollywood A-lister, she has appeared in various TV programmes and movies, including Look Who’s Talking Now, alongside John Travolta.

In 2014, the mother of one revealed that a toxic divorce battle had left her with mounting debts as she survived on £70 a week. But her role as ‘ice queen’ Marnie Nightingale in Hollyoaks has given her career a new lease of life.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘The Metropolitan Police Service was passed an allegation of sexual assault by Merseyside Police on Wednesday, October 11.

‘The allegation has been assessed and will be investigated by officers from the Met’s Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command.

‘The allegation relates to an offence dating back to the late 1980s in the London area.’

Harvey Weinstein’s spokesman issued a statement saying: ‘Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein.’

‘He just ripped my clothes away’: Harvey Weinstein’s former employee says he raped her in the basement of his London office 

A British former Miramax employee has claimed Harvey Weinstein raped her at the studio's flat in West London in 1992

A British former Miramax employee has claimed Harvey Weinstein raped her at the studio’s flat in West London in 1992

A British woman who worked for ‘sexual predator’ Harvey Weinstein has broken a 25-year silence to tell how the film mogul raped her in the basement of his London offices.

The former Miramax employee was left so traumatised by the horrific attack that it was only last week that she was able to confide in her husband and tell him what had happened.

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, she explained her silence, saying: ‘I just felt mortified and ashamed – and that no one would believe me.

‘He was incredibly well-connected, powerful and important – and I was just a nobody.’

‘Sarah Smith’ – her name has been changed for legal reasons – is the first British woman to publicly allege rape against Weinstein.

She said she had been working at Miramax for three years when the attack took place in 1992 in the firm’s mansion flat in Fulham, West London. 

The petite, 7st executive had become used to burly Weinstein’s bullying manner, especially with ‘delicate women’, which left her alternately terrified and elated.

Recalling the day of the alleged rape, Ms Smith, now in her 50s, said: ‘I was there on my own when he came to the office. 

‘He went down to the basement [containing a bedroom for visiting employees from the US] and he called my name. I went down – he was standing there with nothing on. I started to back away. 

‘He grabbed me and he was so big and powerful. He just ripped my clothes away and pushed me, threw me down. 

‘Then… I kept shouting, ‘No! Stop!’ and tried to push him off. But he forced himself on me.

‘And I remember, this is the one thing I remember most clearly: I thought, I have to keep saying ‘No!’ I was very aware that if a woman says no, it means no. 

‘And that was the one thing going through my mind throughout, ‘No, no, no, no!’ It was over very quickly and then he just said, ‘Get out!’ 

‘I remember walking home that night and it was cold and sodden. I was mortified and ashamed. I didn’t tell anyone.

‘We live in more enlightened times now, but back then I just thought no one would believe me.’ 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk