Academy Award-winner Kevin Spacey, whose stellar acting career was derailed by sex assault allegations, is on trial in London, accused of sexual offenses against four men in Britain.
The “House of Cards” actor and jurors sat at London Southwark Crown Court Friday to hear evidence against Spacey, in which he was called a “sexual bully” in openinf statements by Prosecutor Christine Agnew, who said Spacey “delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable.”
“His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch,” she said.
Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs said Spacey denied all allegations of nonconsensual activity and told jurors to ask themselves as they listened to the evidence what – if anything – had happened.
“What has been reimagined with a sinister spin?” Gibbs said. “What has been made up or twisted?”
The charges against Spacey were first filed in June 2022, with additional charges added in November.
His trial before a jury opened Wednesday and is scheduled to last for four weeks. Jurors — nine men and five women — were selected on the first day of the trial.
What is Kevin Spacey accused of in the UK?
Spacey, 63, faces a dozen charges, including of sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
At an earlier hearing, Spacey’s lawyer said the actor “strenuously denies” the charges. The attorney said Spacey would face the U.K. court to establish his innocence and “proceed with his life.”
The actor, charged in the U.K. under his full name of Kevin Spacey Fowler, has pleaded not guilty to all 12 counts, which relate to alleged incidents between 2001 and 2013.
Why is Kevin Spacey’s trial in London?
Spacey spent more than a decade living in Britain, where he was artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre from 2004 to 2015. He was a high-profile figure in London, starring in productions including William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” and David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow,” and hosting star-studded fundraising events for the 200-year-old venue.
Spacey was questioned by British police in 2019 about claims by several men that he had assaulted them. He was charged in May 2022 with five counts against three alleged victims. Another seven charges, all against a fourth man, were added in November.
Spacey, who has addresses in Britain and the U.S., has been free on unconditional bail as he awaited trial.
Kevin Spacey’s history with sexual assault allegations
A federal jury in the U.S. concluded in October that the 63-year-old actor didn’t molest fellow actor Anthony Rapp in the 1980s, bringing to a conclusion a civil trial that was an outgrowth of the #MeToo movement. Jurors at a federal court in New York deliberated for a little more than an hour before deciding that Rapp hadn’t proven his allegations.
The disgraced former “House of Cards” star was initially accused of abuse by Rapp, 50, in 2017, one of the first in a string of sexual misconduct allegations that tarnished Spacey’s acting and filmmaking career. Rapp filed the lawsuit in 2020, claiming the Academy Award-winning actor tried to take him to bed when he was 14.
Another criminal case against Spacey – that he allegedly groped a bus boy in a Nantucket, Massachusetts, restaurant in the summer of 2016 – fell apart in July 2019 when the accuser pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify, forcing prosecutors to drop the case.
Also in 2019, a criminal investigation dropped and a civil suit was dismissed in Los Angeles after the accuser died. The plaintiff, a massage therapist, had accused Spacey of groping him.
Spacey also has been hit with a $31 million bill after a private arbitrator ruled, and a Los Angeles judge affirmed in August, that Spacey and his production companies must pay the makers of Netflix’s “House of Cards” because of losses brought on by his 2017 firing for the sexual harassment of crew members.
Civil trial verdictKevin Spacey cleared by jury in Anthony Rapp molestation lawsuit
Will Kevin Spacey return to acting?
After allegations emerged in the U.S. amid the growing #MeToo movement, Spacey was fired or removed from projects – most notably “House of Cards,” the Netflix political thriller where for five seasons he played lead character Frank Underwood, a power-hungry congressman who becomes president. He was cut from the completed film “All the Money in the World,” and the scenes reshot with Christopher Plummer.
Spacey is adamant that his career is not over. He had his first film role for several years in Italian director Franco Nero’s “The Man Who Drew God,” played the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in biopic “Once Upon a Time in Croatia” and also starred in as-yet unreleased U.S. film “Peter Five Eight.”
Kevin Spacey pleads not guiltyto 7 more sex offense charges in UK, bringing total to 12
In January he was feted with a lifetime achievement award from Italy’s National Cinema Museum in Turin. He also taught a masterclass and introduced a sold-out screening of “American Beauty” in what were billed as Spacey’s first speaking engagements in five years.
Spacey saluted organizers for “making a strong defense of artistic achievement” and for having “le palle” — the Italian word for male body parts synonymous with courage – to invite him.
He told Germany’s Zeit magazine in a rare recent interview that the media had turned him into a “monster.” But he said, “There are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London.”
Contributing: Naledi Ushe, Maria Puente, USA TODAY; Jill Lawless, The Associated Press
