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AFP
NEW YORK
A NEW York judge on Thursday threw out one of six sexual assault allegations against disgraced Hollywood tycoon Harvey Weinstein, a victory for a defense now clamouring for the entire case to be dismissed.
Weinstein, an international pariah after being accused by more than 80 women of sexual misconduct, is still charged with rape in March 2013 and a forced act of oral sex in 2006, which could see him spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
The 66-year-old father of five -- who was arrested in May, eight months after he was initially accused in the media of decades of sexual misconduct, and out on a $1 million bail -- denies any non-consensual sex.
On Thursday he sat in a Manhattan criminal court in a dark suit to hear the prosecution agree to drop a forced act of oral sex lodged by Lucia Evans against him in 2004, due to witness inconsistencies.
Defence lawyer Ben Brafman told the court that a document -- expected to be made public -- had come to light contradicting her version of events.
