Actress compared director to Harvey Weinstein after alleged sexual assault

An actress got upset when a Bafta-nominated film director she has accused of sexually assaulting her did not appear to like a film she had written, directed and appeared in, a court heard.

The woman had thought having Stephen Fingleton round for lunch and showing him her film would be her “big break”, jurors were told.

But Orla Daly, defending Fingleton, said the woman had got upset when her client was a “bit tactless” and not very complimentary about it.

Quizzing the woman at Isleworth Crown Court on Wednesday Ms Daly said she had thought meeting Fingleton could be her “lucky break” and that she had insisted he watch the film.

She added: “I suggest you wanted to hear his opinion. You came back into the room and said to him ‘did you love it’?

“He was a bit tactless about your film, he wasn’t very complimentary about it.

“You started to get a bit upset and you said that your dreams never worked out.”

But the woman denied she had insisted putting on the film, asked Fingleton if he had loved it or said her dreams never worked out.

Fingleton had met the woman at an industry party and when he told her he was looking for an actress for one of his films the pair exchanged numbers and eventually arranged to have lunch at her Fulham flat, jurors were told.

The jury of six women and six men heard that after lunch on the afternoon of October 27, 2017 Fingleton had grabbed her head and pushed it towards his crotch and said “you get down there, you get down there”.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had then told Fingleton she had thought it was a business meeting but he told her “I don’t separate the two”.

But Ms Daly said Fingleton had not grabbed the woman’s head and pulled it towards his crotch.

Ms Daly added: “There was no point at all where he tried to touch your head to move it towards his crotch, was there?”

The woman, who is in her 20s and who sobbed during her evidence, said: “He did that.”

The jury heard that when she told Fingleton she was not interested he had held her hands and tried to kiss her.

Giving evidence on Tuesday she added: “As he was holding my hands I remember thinking he is much stronger than me and he could rape me if he wanted to and I remember just shouting ‘you have to leave now’.”

Fingleton, 35 from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, denies one count of sexual assault.

Previously the woman told jurors she had started crying and told him to leave, but Fingleton had then hugged her, stroked her hair and put his hand under her t-shirt.

She said the director then told her that when he first saw her he thought she was “a submissive” and looked like a “woman who could please”.

She continued: “I said ‘that’s not right, that’s not me’. I said ‘I wish I was ugly’, and he still held me and he said ‘I would not be here if you were ugly’.”

After Fingleton left she texted her friend and said: “I met a director and he was totally Harvey Weinstein”, the jury heard.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward told the court that during the lunch Fingleton had began to bring up sexual topics “out of blue” such as whether the actress had done nudity.

She said the woman, who is in her 20s, began to feel uncomfortable when Fingleton touched her shoulder “quite unexpectedly and seemingly unnecessarily” as he went past her, the prosecutor added.

Ms Ledward said the woman did not say anything because “she did not want to offend and ruin a possible work opportunity if she had gotten the wrong end of the stick”.

The trial continues.