Actor Kevin Spacey arrives at Southwark Crown Court where he is charged with sexual offenses against four men while working at the Old Vic Theater in London, Thursday, July 6, 2023. LUCY NORTH/PA via AP
LONDON—Prosecutors postponed their sexual assault case against Kevin Spacey in a London court on Wednesday, July 12, after four men testified in the past two weeks that the Oscar winner took advantage of them.
Prosecutors read jury statements Spacey gave to investigators denying he aggressively grabbed three men around the crotch and performed a non-consensual sexual act on a fourth.
The defense is due to start presenting their case on Thursday at Southwark Crown Court. The stakes are high, with Spacey facing possible prison time if he is convicted.
The 63-year-old American actor has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges including charges of sexual and indecent assault and one count of causing a person to engage in nonconsensual penetrative sexual activity.
The allegations date from 2001 to 2013 when Spacey worked at the Old Vic Theatre.
None of the alleged victims knew each other, but all testified that they went to the police after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct in the US in 2017 as the #MeToo movement gained momentum.
The allegations at the time brought Spacey’s star career to a standstill. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects” and an Oscar for Lead Actor for the 1999 film “American Beauty.” He was fired from the TV series “House of Cards” and most of his work dried up.
Three of the men said Spacey had a reputation for being attracted to handsome young men and one said he had been warned to avoid it.
‘…until nothing good’
“It was well known that he was up to no good,” the man testified.
One man said Spacey made racially offensive comments to him and then “like a cobra coming out and grabbing him” grabbed his penis when they were alone backstage at a charity event.
An aspiring actor who approached Spacey for advice said he was sorry to meet him for a late-night drink. He said he ended up at Spacey’s apartment near Waterloo station and, after falling asleep or passing out, woke up to the star performing oral sex on him.
A fourth man who had been out drinking heavily with the actor said Spacey then gave him an awkward hug and kissed him on the neck before grabbing his crotch.
Spacey denied doing anything without consent and said he had no recollection of meeting two of the men.
Spacey told police last year that the fourth man who came forward had “reinvented” their time together and fabricated false accusations.
Defense attorney Patrick Gibbs suggested the men were motivated by money. Several of them have filed lawsuits against the star and one testified that an American lawyer had said that he could win him $10 million.
Gibbs suggested that the witnesses were lying, that one of the men had obstructed the investigation by resisting attempts to allow officers to see phone data and social media accounts, and that some of the men were later embarrassed than they were. that they had done consensually with Spacey.
Spacey, who owns homes in London and the United States, is out on unconditional bail. /ra
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