Judge allows a sex trafficking lawsuit filed against the former producer by British actress Kadian Noble to move forward.

• Aug 15, 2018

AceShowbiz - Embattled Harvey Weinstein has lost his bid to have a sex trafficking lawsuit filed against him dismissed.

Aspiring British actress Kadian Noble launched legal action in New York in November, claiming the movie producer sexually assaulted her at a hotel in Cannes, France, groping her breasts, refusing to let her leave his room, rubbing her vagina, and forcing her to pleasure him to climax, as he held her down.

In her lawsuit, she argued Weinstein's alleged actions were a violation of the sex trafficking statute, which prohibits people from recruiting others to engage in a sex act through means of force, threats of force, fraud or coercion in interstate or foreign commerce.

Noble also named the movie mogul's brother Bob and executives at their production film, The Weinstein Company (TWC), for reportedly facilitating the sex acts by either knowing of, or recklessly disregarding, Harvey's pattern and practice of travelling abroad "to entice or recruit or solicit young female actors with the promise of roles in upcoming TWC projects..."

Harvey's lawyers hit back at the sex trafficking allegations, insisting that because nothing of value was exchanged, the supposed incident did not fall under the statute.

However, their bid for dismissal was rejected on Tuesday, August 14, when Manhattan Federal Court Judge Robert Sweet ruled the civil lawsuit can continue, as there is precedent for applying the sex trafficking law to cases involving "defendants who have lured women, under false pretenses, with lucrative promises for sexual purposes", reports The Associated Press.

There was some good news for Bob Weinstein though - he was dropped from the lawsuit as Noble had failed to provide enough evidence to suggest he knew about Harvey's alleged bad behaviour.

Weinstein, who is already facing multiple sex assault criminal charges in the Big Apple, has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.