American actor Danny Masterson, best known for starring in the comedy series That 70’s Show alongside Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis in the late 1990s, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United States for raping two women.
The actor, aged 47 and a member of the Church of Scientology, committed the acts around 20 years ago. Three women, also Scientologists, accused him of raping them at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. The jurors found in favor of two of them and did not reach the unanimity necessary to pronounce a verdict concerning the third. During the trial last June, prosecutors believed that the actor had “drugged and raped each of these victims” and called for him to be “held accountable” for his actions.
This case, triggered in 2017 in the wake of accusations against ex-producer Harvey Weinstein which caused the explosion of the movement
Danny Masterson became known in the late 1990s for his role in the series That 70’s Show. He also appeared more recently alongside the latter in the Netflix series The Ranch, but was dropped in 2017 after the Los Angeles police confirmed they were investigating sexual assault accusations against him. After the actor’s arrest in June 2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said it had dropped two other sexual assault charges against him, due to lack of evidence and because the facts were time-barred. .