Kevin Spacey Goes On Trial For Alleged Sexual Assaults Of 4 Men
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Actor Kevin Spacey appeared in a London court on Wednesdaywearing a navy suit with a pink tie to face charges in connection with the alleged sexual assaults of four men in the U.K.
Judge Mark Wall addressed the court, noting the massive media attention given to the high-profile case, Reuters reports.
“This is a case which has attracted ... and will continue to attract a lot of media coverage,” Wall said. “You must try to avoid such coverage where you can.”
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent to incidents that allegedly occurred between 2001 and 2013, according to the Crown Prosecution Services.
The trial in Southwark Crown Court is expected to last four weeks and was adjourned until Friday morning, when the prosecution is set to formally open its case against him.
Spacey was formally charged in the U.K. in June 2022, with additional charges added in November, according to prosecutors.
According to The Associated Press, Spacey’s lawyers said at earlier hearings that he “strenuously denies” the charges. They did not respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
It’s the most recent chapter in a series of accusations against him, beginning in 2017 as the Me Too movement was growing, that halted the actor’s career.
In 2017, actor Anthony Rapp told BuzzFeed News that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him in 1986 when he was 14 and they were both performing on Broadway. Spacey initially said he did not recall the incident, but apologized for any inappropriate behavior that might have happened in a statement in which he also came out as gay for the first time.
He later vehemently denied that what Rapp described had occurred, and his lawyers accused Rapp of lying out of jealousy of Spacey’s career.
In 2020, Rapp filed a civil lawsuit against Spacey, once again saying Spacey had invited him over to his apartment, then placed him on a bed, climbed on top of him, and pressed his pelvis into Rapp’s hip before he said he was able to get away.
Rapp lost the lawsuit after jurors found his attorneys did not prove that Spacey had touched his “sexual or intimate part or parts.”
Spacey faced a separate criminal charge in 2019 after a Massachusetts teen boy accused him of groping him at a bar in 2016. The charge was dropped after the teen refused to testify.
That same year, a separate civil suit accusing Spacey of groping a massage therapist was dropped after the accuser died, Deadline reported.
That leaves the U.K. sexual assault case, in which Spacey said in a recent interview with Zeit magazine he believes he will be acquitted.
He added that people have been afraid they will be canceled if they support him, but also said he believes his acting career will resume after the trial.
“But I know that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” he told Zeit. “The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward.”
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
