As the anger rages over Jeffrey Epstein's recent death in prison before he faced trial on sex trafficking charges, leaving his alleged victims without their day in court or any hope of justice, a documentary about how movie mogul Harvey Weinstein also allegedly wielded his power against women could not be more timely.

Unlike those abused by Epstein, some of Weinstein's alleged victims will have their day in court - his trial for rape and sexual assault has been pushed back to January next year - but others who are not involved in the trial give powerful testimony in a new BBC documentary.

Untouchable: The Rise and Fall of Harvey Weinstein, airing on BBC One on Sunday night, features interviews with actresses Rosanna Arquette, Erika Rosenbaum and Paz De La Huerta among others, with some like actress Caitlin Dulany speaking on camera for the first time, and sharing horrifying details.

Among the women who spent a lot of time around Weinstein is his former European PA Zelda Perkins, who reveals she was expected to remain in his hotel room as he showered and walked around naked in the morning. She alleges he would ask her for a massage but she rebuffed his advances. When she employed another female colleague to work with her, she told the woman that Weinstein would behave inappropriately but that if she was firm with him she would be fine. Later, at the Venice Film Festival, however, the woman told her that he had sexually assaulted her and tried to rape her.

Both women ultimately signed a non-disclosure agreement and received damages of £125,000 each. Speaking to The Telegraph, Perkins reveals that the agreement included clauses aimed at protecting other women, including therapy for the movie mogul, but she alleges none were adhered to by Weinstein.

Directed by Ursula Macfarlane and produced by the Oscar-winning team behind Man On Wire and Searching for Sugar Man, the feature length documentary goes beyond the women's testimony to chart Weinstein's rise to power, how he wielded that power, and how he went seemingly unchallenged, and in many cases aided in his abuse by both men and women in the industry, for so long.

Hope d'Amore worked for Weinstein 40 years ago and alleges he raped her in a hotel room. She told The Telegraph, “One of the things that upsets me more than anything is that people have covered for this man, just like they covered for Jeffrey Epstein, for decades.

“There were women who enabled him, just like there were women who enabled Epstein. Men don’t have a corner on this market. There were a lot of very powerful people protecting this schmuck.”

As well as alleged victims, former staffers and college friends paint a picture of the man from his early career to the top of the movie industry while the journalists from the New Yorker and New York Times who broke the story that unleashed the #MeToo movement reveal the lengths to which Weinstein went in order to preserve his power.

Weinstein's US trial will take place in January. He denies all charges and says all sexual encounters were consensual.

Untouchable: The Rise and Fall of Harvey Weinstein, BBC One, Sunday, 9pm.

Online Editors