By Brian Melley
London: A London jury acquitted Kevin Spacey on sexual assault charges on Wednesday after a four-week trial in which the actor said he was a “big flirt” who had consensual flings with men and whose only misstep was touching a man’s groin while making a “clumsy pass.”
Three men accused the Oscar winner of aggressively grabbing their crotches. A fourth, an aspiring actor seeking mentorship, said he awoke to the actor performing oral sex on him after going to Spacey’s London apartment for a beer and either falling asleep or passing out.
Kevin Spacey speaks to press after leaving court at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday.Credit: Getty Images
All the men said the contact was unwanted but Spacey testified that the young actor and another man had willingly participated in consensual acts. He said a third man’s allegation that he grabbed his privates like a striking “cobra” backstage at a theatre was “pure fantasy.”
He said he didn’t remember a fourth incident at a small party at a home he rented in the country but accepted that he touched the groin of a man he had met at a pub during a night of heavy drinking. He said he had misread the man’s interest in him and said he had probably made an awkward pass.
Defence lawyer Patrick Gibbs said three of the men were liars and incidents had been “reimagined with a sinister spin.” He accused most of them of hopping on a “bandwagon” of complaints in the hope of striking it rich.
A court artist’s sketch of Kevin Spacey during the trial on Wednesday.Credit: PA
Prosecutor Christine Agnew told jurors that Spacey was a “sexual bully” who took what he wanted when he wanted. She said he was shielded by a “trinity of protection”: he knew men were unlikely to complain; they wouldn’t be believed if they did complain; and if they did complain, no action would be taken because he was powerful.
Spacey, who turned 64 on Wednesday, faced nine charges, including multiple counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
The accusations date from 2001 to 2013 and include a period when Spacey – after winning Academy Awards for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty – had returned to the theatre, his first love. During most of that period he was artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London.
The men came forward after an American actor accused Spacey of an incident of sexual misconduct as the #MeToo movement heated up in 2017.
Several of the men said they had been haunted by the abuse and couldn’t bear to watch Spacey’s films.
One of the men broke down when speaking with police as he provided details in a videotaped interview about the oral sex incident that he said he’d never told anyone before. Another man said he was angry about the abuse that occurred sporadically over several years and began to drink and work out more to cope with it.
Spacey choked up and became teary eyed in the witness box as he described the emotional and financial turmoil that the US accusations brought and the barrage of criticism that followed on social media.
“My world exploded,” Spacey testified. “There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days.”
Gibbs said Spacey was being “monstered” on the internet every night and became toxic in the industry.
Spacey was booted from Netflix’s House of Cards and his scenes in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World were scrubbed and he was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Aside from some small projects, he has barely worked as an actor in six years.
A New York jury last year swiftly cleared Spacey in a $US40 million lawsuit by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp on allegations dating back three decades.
Spacey had viewed the London case as a chance for redemption, telling German magazine Zeit last month that there were “people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London.“
AP