AN INVESTIGATION has reportedly been launched after an Irish woman’s alleged that disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein assaulted her in Dublin 25 years ago.
Laura Madden, from Co. Monaghan, has made a formal complaint to British police over the alleged assault.
Ms Madden, a former executive for Mr Weinstein’s film company Miramax, claims that the shamed producer asked her for massages on several occasions beginning in 1991.
She also alleges that Weinstein sexually assaulted her during the filming of the 1992 Irish film Into the West, written by Jim Sheridan and starring Gabriel Byrne.
British police received the allegation on October 31 – making it the eighth such accusation brought against Weinstein to UK authorities in a month, according to The Times.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: "On October 31 an allegation was received that a man sexually assaulted a women in the Republic.”
"We sent that to our Irish counterparts."
British Police received the complaint as part of Operation Kaguyak – which is believed to be a probe into allegations of sexual assault by Weinstein.
Eight separate claims of sexual assault by him in the UK are also understood to be under investigation.
A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána would neither confirm nor deny that an investigation is underway in Ireland.
"We don't comment on correspondence between ourselves and any other authority," they said.
Ms Madden, who was one of the first women to make a complaint against Weinstein, told The New York Times: "He had a way of making anyone who objected feel like an outlier.
“It was so manipulative. You constantly question yourself – am I the one who is the problem?”
According to the American newspaper, Madden later told a colleague about Weinstein’s advances, including an occasion when she locked herself in the bathroom of his hotel room crying.
“We were so young at the time,” said her former colleague Karen Katz.
“We did not understand how wrong it was or how Laura should deal with it.”
Weinstein has denied the allegations made against him in Britain.
Ms Madden’s ex-husband, Welsh film director Kevin Allen, recently slammed Weinstein in a Facebook post calling him “a repulsive bloke.”
Allen, whose brother is actor Keith Allen and niece is musician Lily Allen, wrote: “Before actually meeting him, I’d heard things about him that would make your toes curl, by virtue of my ex-wife working as a Miramax production exec at the time.
“[She was] one of many women who have bravely stepped forward to blow the whistle on a litany of appalling acts he has committed.”
