Suicide, acquittal, overturning of the verdict and some prison terms. This is the summary of the multi-year struggle against sexual violence that came into focus with the #MeToo movement in 2017.
The latest development in which former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who was at the center of a sexual violence scandal in the film industry, had one of his convictions overturned, has caused disappointment for the victims.
"This is what it's like to be a woman in America, to live with men laying claim to our bodies," said actress Ashley Judd, who was among the first to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, in the initial reactions.
A few years later, after hundreds of testimonies, protests and court processes, what happened to the cases that brought the problem of sexual violence into the focus of the world public?
The Bill Cosby Case: 'A Free Man'
After more than 60 women accused him of rape, sexual assault and harassment, Bill Cosby is a free man today. He was the first celebrity convicted in the #MeToo era.
In 2018, the once popular comedian was found guilty of sexually abusing and drugging Andrea Konstand in her home in 2004. He spent two years in prison serving a sentence that could have been up to ten years.
The conviction was overturned three years later when an agreement reached with a previous prosecutor in 2005 preventing Cosby from being convicted was found. Under that agreement, the prosecutor agreed with Cosby's lawyers not to file criminal charges. At that moment, Kozbi had already served two years of his sentence.
Although free, Cosby is facing new indictments in New York in which a woman accuses him of drugging and sexually assaulting her after he offered to mentor her. An indictment against him was also filed in the federal state of Nevada, where nine women accuse him of sexual assault.
All nine women claim that Cosby drugged and molested them between 1979 and 1992. One of them, Janice Dickinson, testified earlier against the American actor who was nicknamed "American Dad" because of his role in the Cosby Show.
As the Guardian reports, Dickinson testified that Cosby drugged and raped her in her hotel room in 1992.
"Rape is etched in my soul," she said after the verdict in 2018. "I'll never be the same."
A year after his release, Cosby said he plans to perform again.
The Jeffrey Epstein case: Suicide in lieu of conviction
While awaiting trial for human trafficking in 2019, American billionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan prison cell.
His name was associated with many celebrities, including the former American president Bill Clinton, as well as the British Prince Andrew.
Epstein was originally arrested in Florida in 2005 following allegations that he paid a 14-year-old girl for sex. Dozens of others described being sexually abused by Epstein. In 2008, Epstein reached a plea deal and secretly pleaded guilty to one count, then served 13 months in a prison program that allowed him to continue working.
But in 2019, Epstein will be charged with human trafficking in New York. He is accused of paying girls under the age of 18 to perform sexual acts at his homes in New York, Florida, and on his private island between 2002 and 2005.
If he had been convicted, he would have been sentenced to 45 years in prison. After his suicide, a Manhattan prosecutor then charged his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, with helping to recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence.
Because of his friendship with Epstein, Prince Andrew will lose his royal title, and Virginia Giuffre, who filed a lawsuit against Epstein, also filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that the prince sexually assaulted her in London and New York. She also said that at the age of 17 she was taken to Great Britain to have sex with the prince.
In 2021, Prince Andrew will reach a settlement of an unknown amount with Đufra.
The Ar Kelly Case: Two Decades of Escape from Responsibility
After facing accusations of violence and sexual abuse for two decades, Robert Sylvester Kelly, better known as Ar Kelly (R. Kelly) was sentenced in 2021 to 30 years in prison for racketeering and human trafficking.
Despite years of convictions for misconduct, Ar Kelly was only formally charged when 11 witnesses, including nine women and two men, gave television interviews in which they described the sexual humiliation and violence they were subjected to. The indictment accused him of abusing six women and girls, including the late singer Aaliyah, who was 15 when she married him.
In addition to this, Ar Kelly was sentenced to another 20 years in prison for child pornography and solicitation of minors for sex. Formerly popular singer and Grammy Award winner Ar Kelly, 57, will serve both sentences concurrently.
"You made me do things that broke my spirit. I literally wanted to die because of how bad you made me feel," said one of the witnesses in court in New York.
Prosecutors accused Kelly of using fame and fortune to lure victims with promises of help in their music careers. Several of his victims said they were underage when he sexually assaulted them.
Two judgments of Harvey Weinstein
The case at the center of the #MeToo movement was the accusation of former Hollywood mogul, producer and Miramax studio owner Harvey Weinstein for sexual misconduct.
After years of accusations and protests, Weinstein was sentenced in New York to 23 years in prison, and then in Los Angeles to 16 years.
But now the Supreme Court in New York has overturned the original verdict, because as it was said, Weinstein did not get a fair trial.
According to the Court of Appeals decision, the judge who oversaw Weinstein's trial erred by allowing women whose accusations were not part of the case to testify.
The ruling said this meant he was being tried for his past conduct, not just the crimes he was accused of.
In a 2020 ruling, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison on charges of forced oral sex in 2006 and raping an actress in 2013.
But 72-year-old Weinstein remains in prison on a separate conviction for rape.
In a second trial for raping and sexually assaulting one of the four women who accused him in Los Angeles, he was found guilty in 2022 and sentenced to an additional 16 years.
The case of one of Hollywood's once most popular and successful producers was among the most prominent to emerge from the #MeToo movement, which exposed sexual abuse and misconduct at the highest levels of the Hollywood film industry and beyond.
Weinstein, the head of the studio behind some Oscar-winning films like "Pulp Fiction," "Shakespeare in Love" and others, maintains that he is innocent and that any sexual activity was consensual.
More than 80 women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against Weinstein spanning several decades. Among them were popular actresses like Ashley Judd and Uma Thurman.
The decision to overturn Weinstein's verdict was made four to three and a new trial was ordered.
Judge Madeline Singas, who opposed the overturning of the verdict, wrote in her opinion that after the decision they made, the jury in the future "will be in the dark, and the accused will be separated from their past crimes."
"Men who serially sexually exploit their power over women, especially the most vulnerable groups in society, will enjoy the benefits of today's decision," said Judge Singas, according to the American New Yorker.
A New York court decision now calls into question what evidence prosecutors will be able to use in sexual assault cases in the future.
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