Here is what we know about the case.
Who Is Kevin Spacey?
Spacey has appeared in numerous Hollywood movies and won Oscars for best actor in “American Beauty” (1999) and best supporting actor in “The Usual Suspects” (1995).
More recently he starred in the TV drama series “House of Cards”. He was also artistic director at London’s Old Vic theatre from 2004 to 2015.
What Are The Charges Against Him?
The charges include repeated incidents of indecent and sexual assaults against four men, and a more serious offence of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
The offences allegedly took place between 2001 and 2013 at a time he was living in Britain and working at the Old Vic.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew told the trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court that Spacey was a “sexual bully” who had assaulted the four men for his own sexual gratification.
What Are The Allegations?
The first man was a driver, aged in his early 30s at the time of the offences, who Agnew said the “touchy feely” actor would grab and grope in an aggressive way.
Spacey had forced the man’s hand onto the actor’s genitalia on numerous occasions, he had smacked the man’s backside really hard and touched his buttocks over clothing on about a dozen occasions.
On one final incident, Spacey grabbed the man’s penis so hard while he was driving that he almost came off the road, the prosecutor said.
“He told him that it had hurt and he must never do that again – in response Kevin Spacey Fowler simply laughed and commented that his getting angry simply turned him on,” Agnew said.
The second complainant said Spacey had touched him at an event at a London theatre when he was 28. He was showing Spacey around backstage when the actor spun him round and painfully grabbed his crotch, the prosecution say.
The most serious accusation against Spacey was made by the third complainant, an aspiring actor. He said he was 23 when he briefly met Spacey at an audition and later wrote asking for assistance.
A few weeks later he says he met Spacey for a drink and later the Hollywood star invited him into a building for a drink. Agnew said the man later either fell asleep or passed out but awoke to find Spacey giving him oral sex.
The final complainant said he met Spacey while working in a pub near Oxford in central England, aged 23. He said he and a group of friends had joined the actor at another pub and then later went to the house where Spacey was staying with a group of about 12-15 people.
While there, he found himself alone with Spacey who gave him a hug, kissed his neck and said “be cool, be cool”, Agnew told the court. The actor then grabbed the man’s crotch who responded by pushing him against a wall, before leaving in a “panicky state”.
What Does Spacey Say?
Spacey has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. According to Agnew, in police interviews he said he had no recollection of performing oral sex on anyone without consent.
He denied grabbing the second man at the theatre. Regarding the fourth man’s account, he said while it was entirely possible and indeed he might have made a clumsy pass at someone in the past, he had never grabbed anyone’s crotch in that way, nor behaved in such a manner without an indication of consent.
As to the driver’s accusations, Spacey said he considered the man a friend and was baffled and hurt if he was reimagining time they spent together into untrue allegations, and that anything that occurred was consensual.
His lawyer Patrick Green said the jury would hear some truths, some half-truths, some exaggerations and “some many damned lies”.
He queried the complainant’s motivation given Spacey’s wealth and fame.
Proecutor Agnew asked: “Are they lying? Have they decided to manufacture allegations against the defendant in order to benefit financially?”
“Or is it the case, as we the prosecution suggest that Mr Spacey Fowler abused the power and influence that his reputation and fame afforded him … Taking what and who he wanted when he wanted.”
What Sentence Do The Charges Carry?
If found guilty, Spacey could face time in jail. The most serious charge faced by Spacey, of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
How Long Is The Trial Due To Last?
About four weeks.
Kevin Spacey is a ‘sexual bully’ London Court told
Kevin Spacey is an aggressive “sexual bully” who assaults men and gets turned on when his unwanted advances provoke anger, a British prosecutor said on Friday at the start of the Oscar-winning U.S. actor’s trial on sex offence charges.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen allegations of historic sex offences committed against four men, then aged in their 20s and 30s, which are said to have taken place between 2001 and 2013. His lawyer said the claims were “damned lies”.
Opening the prosecution case at London’s Southwark Crown Court, lawyer Christine Agnew told the jury the “predatory” Spacey was not just an extremely famous actor who had won a number of awards but “a man who sexually assaults other men”.
“A man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable – a sexual bully,” Agnew said.
“His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.”
Spacey, who is being tried under his full name Kevin Spacey Fowler, watched proceedings from the dock, wearing a grey suit, a gold-coloured tie and glasses.
The charges against him include repeated incidents of indecent and sexual assaults. He is also accused of a more serious offence of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
“Each of these allegations of non-consensual sexual conduct is completely denied,” his lawyer Patrick Gibbs said. “Mr Spacey has come back to the UK as he said he would to answer them and say in full in due course what actually happened as he would say it and put all the rumours and conjecture to bed.”
Outlining the allegations of the four men, Agnew said Spacey had repeatedly grabbed and groped the victims or forced their hand onto his own genitalia, and performed oral sex on one while he was asleep.
‘Sexual Thrill’
When one man told him he must never touch him again after Spacey grabbed his crotch very hard, the actor “simply laughed and commented that his getting angry simply turned him on”, Agnew said.
The allegations against Spacey, who won Oscars for best actor in 2000 for “American Beauty” and best supporting actor in “The Usual Suspects” in 1996, took place during the more than a decade he spent in London working at the Old Vic theatre.
In police interviews, Spacey said he had no memory of some of his accusers and denied grabbing them, although he said it was “entirely possible and indeed likely” he had made a clumsy pass at someone he did not recall, Agnew said.
The prosecutor said the jury, who she cautioned might “feel a little star-struck”, would have to decide whether the accusers were lying or making up allegations to benefit financially, with some of them suing the actor in civil courts.
“Or is it the case, as we the prosecution suggest, that Mr Spacey Fowler abused the power and influence that his reputation and fame afforded him?” she said.
Spacey’s lawyer said there were definitely two sides to the stories, and the jurors would need to consider what had actually happened, whether it was consensual, and what was the accusers’ motivation in making their complaints.
“You will hear some truths, you will hear some half-truths, you will also hear … some deliberate exaggerations and some many damned lies,” Gibbs said.
