The tide could turn for Harvey Weinstein after being sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual abuse.

An appeals court in New York accused the prosecutor on Wednesday of having disproportionately incriminated the former Hollywood mogul with testimony from women who were not alleged victims of the sixty-nine-year-old.

The presiding judge James Burke influenced the jury by admitting the witnesses who were supposed to prove previous assaults.

The jury found Weinstein guilty in February 2020 of raping then actress Jessica Mann seven years earlier.

They also saw it as proven that he forced former production assistant Mimi Haleyi to have oral sex in 2006.

Weinstein's defenders had portrayed the alleged assaults as consensual sexual encounters.

As the appeals court has now indicated, it is considering reversing the judgment and starting a new criminal trial.

According to the industry journal The Hollywood Reporter, the decision is expected in January.

Weinstein was meanwhile taken to California from a prison in New York state.

There he is preparing for the next criminal case after another charge of sexual assault.