Kevin Spacey sexual assault trial: 5 key things to come out of the U.K. criminal case

London — Kevin Spacey arrived at the Southwark Crown Court in London Tuesday for the fourth day of a trial in which the Hollywood star stands accused of sexual assault. Spacey, 63, faces a total of 12 criminal charges based on allegations made by four men relating to incidents that took place over a two-decade period. 

The actor is accused of sexual assault, indecent assault and a more serious offense of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in Britain. 

Spacey has pleaded not guilty to all 12 charges against him. The accusers, who have provided graphic testimony in the courtroom this week, cannot be named publicly under British law.

Spacey’s remarkable acting career largely came to an end in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp publicly accused him of sexual misconduct, but he fended off those accusations and sexual misconduct criminal charges in a 2019 case in Massachusetts.

In an interview with German magazine Zeit in June, Spacey predicted that he would also beat the case in the U.K. and then go on to restore his reputation and acting career.

Prosecution calls Spacey a “sexual bully”

The court heard opening statements Friday from both the prosecution and defense in the case. 

Lead prosecutor Christine Agnew opened the trial by labeling Spacey a “sexual bully.”

She called the Oscar-winning actor “a man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who, it would seem, delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable.”  

Patrick Gibbs, Spacey’s attorney, told the 12-person jury that the actor had come back to Britain to rebut the allegations by explaining “what actually happened.” 

Gibbs told the jurors they would hear “many damned lies” about his client’s behavior.

“What has been reimagined with a sinister spin? What has been made up or twisted?” Spacey’s lawyer asked the court.

Jury told to judge Spacey the man, not the actor

The judge in the case, Justice Mark Wall, told jurors that he had a note from one of the jury members indicating that they “inadvertently” watched a clip of a film with Kevin Spacey in it over the past 24 hours.

“That’s not at all a problem,” the judge told the jury. “The defendant is, as you know, a high-profile actor, and no doubt there are clips of his films on social media.”

“You are not here to judge him as an actor…you are here to judge him as a man against the evidence presented,” he said.

As proceedings began last week, Wall had told the court that the case had “attracted a lot of media coverage,” and urged jurists to “rely on what you see and hear in this courtroom.”

Accuser calls Spacey a “slippery, snaky, difficult person”

On Monday, the court heard from one man who said he had been assaulted multiple times by Spacey and that the assaults had caused him shame, anxiety and depression.

The accuser described Spacey as a “slippery, snaky, difficult person” who had initially made him uncomfortable by questioning his sexuality, before later becoming “touchy feely” and aggressively groping him when the two were alone together.

The man had been employed by Spacey as a driver when the American actor served as artistic director at the Old Vic Theatre in London in the early 2000s. He said Spacey had put his hands on his genitals five or six times and he accused the star of “grooming” him.

Almost two decades after the alleged attacks, the man said he still could not bring himself to watch any movie featuring Spacey. 

“I can’t stand watching the man. It makes me feel sick,” the man said in a video clip of his interview with police that was played in the court.

Man describes a specific alleged attack

On one occasion, the accuser said Spacey had grabbed his genitals while he was driving the actor to a party hosted by singer Elton John in 2004.

The complainant said Spacey grabbed his crotch so hard that he nearly crashed the car. Giving his testimony from behind a screen, the accuser said he’d threatened to knock Spacey unconscious if he put his hands on him again. He told the court that Spacey replied: “That’s such a turn on to me.”

The defense, in cross examination, said the man’s allegations were inaccurate and claimed Spacey had only attended one such gathering in 2001. The complainant said it was possible that he had misremembered the dates.

The man rejected insinuations by defense counsel Patrick Gibbs that he had in fact been flirtatious towards Spacey.

Gibbs also asked the man why he kept a “warm and jolly” letter from Spacey in his possession and questioned why the accuser had posted a “cozy” photo of himself with Spacey on social media.

“It’s just a normal photo, two men standing next to each other,” the accuser responded.

Accuser says Spacey told him to “be cool” during alleged assault

The court heard from a second accuser Tuesday who said Spacey assaulted him after joining a group of his friends for a night of drinking at a pub near Oxford in 2013. The complainant told the court that around 1:30 a.m. on the night in question, the actor invited the whole group back to a rented property where he was staying.

The man said he was looking for a coat to wear outside to smoke when he accidentally let Spacey’s dog out. After getting the dog back into the room, he said he “turned around and Kevin was about five yards away from me.”

The man said Spacey came toward him in a hugging motion before kissing the man’s neck, grabbing his crotch and saying, “be cool, be cool.”

The man said he pushed Spacey away and that a “panicked look” came across the actor’s face when his advance was rejected. The accuser told police it “all happened quite swiftly” and that he became “a bit teary” when he left the house.

When asked by the defense why he only came forward to police to report the incident in 2018, five years after it allegedly happened, the man said he came forward when he learned there were “other incidents involving Kevin Spacey.”

The trial began on June 28 and was expected to last about four weeks.