Robert De Niro's company has been ordered to pay more than $1.2m (£982,000) to his former personal assistant after it was found to have engaged in gender discrimination and retaliation - but a jury found the star was not personally liable for the abuse.

A judge ordered De Niro's company, Canal Productions, to make two payments of $632,143 to his long-time personal assistant Graham Chase Robinson.

De Niro, 80, who spent three days at the two-week trial, including two in the witness box, has been ensnared in duelling lawsuits with Ms Robinson since she quit in April 2019.

Ms Robinson, 41, said De Niro and his girlfriend Tiffany Chen teamed up against her to turn a job she once loved into a nightmare.

De Niro and Ms Chen each said during evidence that Ms Robinson became the problem when her aspirations to move beyond Canal Productions led her to make escalating demands to remain in the job.

In two days in the witness box the actor told jurors he boosted Ms Robinson's salary from less than $100,000 (£82,000) annually to $300,000 (£245,000) and elevated her title to vice president of production and finance at her request - despite her responsibilities remaining largely the same.

De Niro said when she quit Ms Robinson stole about $85,000 (£70,000) in airline miles from him, betrayed his trust and violated his unwritten rules to use common sense and always do the right thing.

At times De Niro acknowledged from the witness box many of the claims Ms Robinson made to support her $12m (£10m) gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.

He agreed he had asked her to scratch his back on at least two occasions, dismissing a question about it with: "Ok, twice? You got me!"

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He admitted he had berated her, though he disputed ever aiming a profanity her way, saying: "I was never abusive, ever."

He also denied ever yelling at her, saying every little thing she was trying to catch him with was nonsense and that, at most, he had raised his voice in her presence but never with disrespect.

Then, he looked at her sitting between her lawyers in the courtroom and shouted: "Shame on you, Chase Robinson!"

reports SKY NEWS