Global Courant
Prosecutors portrayed actor Kevin Spacey as a “sexual bully” during opening statements at his criminal trial Friday.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault, indecent assault and inciting penetrative sexual activity without a person’s consent.
The allegations stem from accusations made by four different men.
Spacey is “a man who has no respect for personal boundaries or space, a man who seems to take pleasure in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable — a sexual bully,” prosecutor Christine Agnew said in her opening statement. “His preferred method of attack, it seems, is to aggressively grab other men in the crotch.”
KEVIN SPACEY PLEASE NOT GUILTY OF SEXUAL ATTACKS IN LONDON COURT
Kevin Spacey was a “sexual bully,” prosecutors said Friday during opening statements at his London criminal trial. (Getty Images)
Defense attorney Patrick Gibbs said Spacey denied all allegations of nonconsensual activity and told jurors that while listening to the evidence, they should ask themselves what—if anything—had happened when he arrived at the trial. men wash. He suggested that the alleged victims had other motives and that Spacey had opened up to opportunists when he came out as gay in 2020.
He said jurors would hear truths, half-truths, deliberate exaggerations and “lots of damned lies”.
All the allegations were made while Spacey was working as Artistic Director at the Old Vic Theater in London. The four victims, who don’t know each other, all have similar stories about being groped by the ‘American Beauty’ actor.
In his statement to police, Spacey said he had done nothing without permission. He said it was “quite possible and indeed probable” that he had made a “clumsy pass”, but denied grabbing anyone’s crotch. He suggested that some men were looking for financial gain.
A jury of nine men and five women, including two alternates, will decide his fate at the four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, where he will be identified by his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler. The actor, who has homes in London and the US, is out on bail.
Kevin Spacey arrives at a London court for his sexual assault trial. (Getty Images)
Spacey first faced allegations of sexual misconduct when actor Anthony Rapp came forward in 2017. Rapp accused Spacey of attacking him at a party in the 1980s. Spacey was not held liable in Rapp’s civil case against him.
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After Rapp’s allegation, more men came forward with allegations against Spacey, and he was booted from the Netflix show “House of Cards.”
Spacey returned to the big screen with roles in Italian director Franco Nero’s “The Man Who Drew God,” the biopic “Once Upon a Time in Croatia,” and the film “Peter Five Eight.”
Kevin Spacey’s criminal trial in London began on June 28. (Getty Images)
The actor has claimed that he would be in demand again if he did not face charges in the US
“There are people right now who are ready to hire me once I’m cleared of this charge,” Spacey said in an interview published this month in the German magazine Zeit.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
