Harvey Weinstein is set to face his toughest legal challenge yet – a criminal trial for rape and sexual assault that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Only a handful of women will be allowed to testify at the trial in New York supreme court in Manhattan, which begins on 6 January. But watching from the sidelines will be scores of women who have alleged sexual misconduct and abuse at the hands of Weinstein.

In the New York trial, the 67-year-old movie producer is accused of raping a longtime lover, who has not been publicly named, in 2013, and of forcibly performing oral sex on his production assistant in 2006. The trial will include testimony from these two alleged victims, as well as from Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein raped her at her apartment in the early 1990s.

The alleged 1993 incident was initially deemed too old to be considered as evidence, but was recently admitted under the legal theory that the testimony could help support charges of predatory sexual assault, which carry a maximum life sentence and requires prosecutors to show a pattern of misconduct.

The prosecution will attempt to prove that Weinstein is guilty of all five counts brought before the court, including two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of a criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of rape in the first degree and one count of rape in the third degree. Sciorra’s allegation cannot be charged separately, according to prosecutors.

Weinstein has denied all wrongdoing, saying any sex that took place was consensual.

Zoë Brock, a former model and writer from New Zealand who was part of that civil settlement, told the Guardian that watching proceedings will be agonizing.

“I’m heartbroken that I won’t have the opportunity to face him in court myself. I’m really disappointed. It’s been devastating,” said Brock, who has alleged Weinstein made unwanted sexual advances in a hotel room in 1997, forcing her to lock herself in the bathroom to escape.

“I can definitely paint a picture that he was aided and abetted by people who worked for him, and some of the people who worked for him admitted to my face that he did it repeatedly.”

I’m heartbroken that I won’t have the opportunity to face him in court myself. I’m really disappointed Zoë Brock

The trial comes two years after New York Times and New Yorker investigations into widespread allegations of sexual abuse and harassment by Weinstein helped galvanise the #MeToo era – and a year after his arrest in 2018, when he was released on $1m bail.

It also comes amid concerns that though Weinstein’s fall from Hollywood royalty to criminal defendant was a watershed cultural moment, he may not ultimately be held legally accountable for most of his alleged conduct.

Such concerns were heightened in December, following reports that the Weinstein Company had reached a tentative $25m settlement deal in a civil case with more than 30 alleged sexual misconduct victims, which would not require Weinstein to admit any wrongdoing or pay anything out of his own pocket to his accusers.

Weinstein’s lawyers insist he is innocent and will only need to sow doubt in the jurors’ minds since it’s up to the prosecution to meet the burden of proof, which is higher for criminal cases than civil ones.

“Mr Weinstein maintains that all of these allegations are false, and he expects to be fully vindicated,” Weinstein lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in a statement.

The road to the trial has been long and gruelling. In October 2018, Weinstein lawyers got one of six criminal sex charges dismissed. But the defense subsequently failed to get other charges against Weinstein dropped in December 2018, after the judge ruled the court had found “no basis for the defendant’s claim of prosecutorial or law enforcement misconduct”.

Last summer, prosecutors obtained a new indictment allowing for Sciorra to testify – a move a Weinstein’s lawyers called “desperate”. Weinstein’s lawyers faced another setback in October when the defense lost its bid to move the trial to another city: the court rejected the former producer’s concern that he wouldn’t get a fair trial in what his lawyers referred to as the “circus-like atmosphere” of media in New York. Unlike other high-profile court cases in the US, this trial will not be televised.

﻿“I’m trying as much as I can to brace myself for the worst possible scenario,” the actor Katherine Kendall, one of the first women to speak out against Weinstein, told the Guardian. “And at the same time I feel really hopeful because this is a historic moment and it feels like the message could get out there to people that your stories matter and the judicial system will do something about it.”

Kendall came forward as part of the New York Times’ initial investigation into Weinstein, alleging he harassed her in 1993. She has since sought out therapeutic resources, like the trauma workshops led by fellow Weinstein accuser Louise Godbold.

“If this man walks free it is not just an insult to those of us who have lost friends, families, careers as a result of coming forward with the truth,” Godbold told the Guardian, “but it is sending a dangerous predator back into the world.”

The former actor and screenwriter Louisette Geiss emphasized her frustration with the limited scope of the criminal trial. “In the class action we know of 150 women he’s affected,” Geiss told the Guardian.

A mother to four, Geiss left Hollywood for real estate after she said Weinstein tried to make her to watch him masturbate in front of her as she was pitching a movie at the Sundance film festival in 2008.

She now serves as co-chair of the $25m civil settlement against Weinstein and the Weinstein Company.

“We all know that the court of public feelings are very important around these decisions and if he’s seen as this poor guy … that’s not going to fly,” she said, in reference to his recent media appearances.

Weinstein has begun appearing with a walker, and while recovering from spinal surgery, he granted a rare photo opportunity and interview to the New York Post.

“I feel like the forgotten man,” he told the Post. “I made more movies directed by women and about women than any film-maker, and I’m talking about 30 years ago. I’m not talking about now when it’s vogue. I did it first! I pioneered it!”

Harvey Weinstein leaves Manhattan criminal court in December. Photograph: Bryan R Smith/AFP via Getty Images

Weinstein has said he sustained a serious back injury in a car accident in August last year. But some are skeptical of the optics of his interview.

“He’s a wealthy man – he knows how to do PR for himself … So it is very important for us since we can’t be on the stand to make sure we let America know what a bad guy he is,” Geiss said.

Things will only more heated once the trial begins on Monday, a housekeeping day when the judge will outline the schedule, and it’s expected to drag on for weeks. Jury selection is set to begin on Tuesday, and jurors have been told to prepare for a case lasting up to two months.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office is considering whether to bring charges in eight separate cases against Weinstein. London’s Metropolitan police force continues to investigate allegations of misconduct. But for now, all eyes are on the New York trial.

“Considering every other horrific thing that happened so far in this criminal case with Harvey, I now live in the worst-case scenario,” Brock said.

“The system is broken,” Brock continued. “And therefore no, I do not feel confident any more that the right thing will happen because life is not a Spielberg movie. I wish it was.”