Los Angeles: Former Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein has begged for leniency in a Los Angeles court moments before he was sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison for rape, media reports said.

He was convicted of attacking an actress in a hotel room during a film festival in the city in February 2013, reports BBC.

"Please don't sentence me to life in prison," the disgraced Hollywood star told the court as quoted by BBC. "I don't deserve it."

The film mogul is already serving a 23-year prison sentence for a separate conviction in New York.

Who is Harvey Weinstein?

Harvey and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films including Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989); The Crying Game (1992); Pulp Fiction (1994); Heavenly Creatures (1994); Flirting with Disaster (1996); and Shakespeare in Love (1998).

In October 2017, following sexual abuse allegations dating back to the late 1970s, Weinstein was dismissed from his company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More than 80 women made allegations of sexual harassment and/or rape against Weinstein.

The allegations sparked the #MeToo social media campaign and subsequent sexual abuse allegations against many powerful men around the world; this phenomenon is referred to as the "Weinstein effect".