Rapper and television presenter Ali B has been found guilty of one count of rape and one of sexual assault but cleared on other charges by judges in Haarlem.

The former celebrity has been given a two-year jail term for the rape and assault, although he still has the right to appeal against the sentence.  The public prosecution department had called for a three year jail term.

B, whose full name is Ali Bouali, was not in court for the verdict. The 42-year-old from Almere was the only one of four men at the centre of a “me too” scandal at television talent show The Voice of Holland to end up in court.

A report on YouTube channel Boos in early 2022 claimed several dozen women had been harassed and abused by men behind the scenes at the programme. After the broadcast, the public prosecution appealed for victims to come forward and started a formal investigation.

Bouali was later charged with assaulting three women between 2014 and 2018. One woman, named as Naomi, claimed Bouali assaulted and raped her during a writers’ camp in Heiloo in August 2018, when she was 20. He was found guilty of that rape but not of assault.

In the second case, Bouali was charged with sexually assaulting Jill Helena, a female participant in The Voice of Holland in 2013. Although her statements were extremely detailed and believable, the court said that it was compelled to find Bouali not guilty because of a lack of supporting evidence.

The third is an alleged rape of 47-year-old singer Ellen ten Damme, during the making of a television show in Morocco in April 2014. She went public with her allegations after the story first broke. Bouali was found not guilty of raping Ten Damme but was found guilty of sexually assaulting her.

The court said that Bouali had taken no responsibility for his actions in court. Rather, he tried “to take advantage of the public interest in the case”, the court said, describing the rapper as “rather forceful” and as someone who “does not take no for an answer”.

Bouali denied all charges and his legal team have already said he will appeal.

Earlier, the public prosecution department decided not to proceed against band leader Jeroen Rietbergen or judge Marco Borsato who were also embroiled in the scandal.