NEW YORK • Ms Dawn Dunning and Ms Tarale Wulff were young aspiring actresses waiting tables in New York when they met Harvey Weinstein in the early 2000s.

He offered to help them with their acting careers, luring them to what they thought were business meetings.

But each took the witness stand on Wednesday at his rape trial to describe how, once they were alone with Weinstein, he sexually assaulted them instead.

Ms Dunning testified that at one meeting, he suggested she agree to a threesome with him and one of his assistants to advance her career, saying: "This is how the industry works."

Ms Wulff said she had agreed to meet Weinstein to discuss acting when he raped her in his Manhattan loft.

He has not been criminally charged in connection with the claims from the two women but the judge said prosecutors can use their testimony to demonstrate Weinstein's alleged history of sexually assaulting women.

Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts, including rape and predatory sexual assault.

Those charges stem from allegations that he forcibly performed oral sex on Ms Miriam Haley, an assistant for Project Runway, in 2006, and raped Ms Jessica Mann, a former actress, in 2013.