An American actor, Danny Masterson, from “That ’70s Show,” received a sentence of at least 30 years in jail on Thursday, 7th September 2023 for raping two women in his house, twenty years ago.
The US actor was found guilty in May 2023 of drugging and raping two Church of Scientology adherents between 2001 and 2003, at his opulent Hollywood Hills mansion.
The jury in the retrial deadlocked on another rape charge against a third woman. That charge was dismissed.
Masterson, 47, went on trial for rape for the second time; the first trial ended in a mistrial in November 2022 when a different jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
The three women at the heart of the charges against Masterson were members of the Church of Scientology at the time. Two of them said church officials had discouraged them from contacting law enforcement.
Masterson’s lawyers in closing arguments questioned why the court had heard “so much about Scientology,” and the defense had suggested that bias against the church could have been a motivating factor.
The Church of Scientology criticised the notion that it had tried to silence the complaints.
The church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone, Scientologists or not, to law enforcement.”
Quite the opposite, church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land.”
Masterson has been in custody awaiting sentencing since his conviction.
The actor rose to fame with the 1998 launch of retro sitcom “That ’70s Show,” where he played the character of Steven Hyde alongside fellow stars Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher.
He co-starred again with Kutcher on Netflix’s “The Ranch,” but was fired in 2017 and written off the show after Los Angeles police confirmed they were investigating multiple rape allegations against the actor.
Story: Christy Dung