Kevin Spacey found not guilty of U.K. sexual assault charges

A British jury has found Kevin Spacey not guilty of nine counts of sexual assault after four men accused him of forcing himself on them between 2001 and 2013, time during which Spacey mostly spent serving as artistic director of London’s Old Vic theater.

According to CBS News, all four men, as well as Spacey, testified in the trial, with the men describing the former House of Cards star as a “sexual bully.” Spacey reportedly began to cry when the jury announced its verdict after 12 hours of deliberation.

Related:

Jury finds Kevin Spacey not liable in Anthony Rapp’s sexual assault lawsuit

“I pledge to keep on advocating for efforts to ensure that we can live and work in a world that is free from sexual violence of any kind,” Rapp said.

The accusers must remain anonymous under British law. The New York Times reported that one of the complainants said he fell asleep while having a drink at Spacey’s home and woke up to Spacey performing oral sex on him. Spacey disputed the claim, saying the sex was consensual but the man then left quickly and seemed to regret it.

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Another man said that Spacey grabbed his genitals while they drove to Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara Ball, but John told the court that Spacey did not attend the ball in the year he was accused.

Spacey’s lawyer, Patrick Gibbs, claimed three of the accusers were lying and just wanted money from Spacey. He said Spacey was just an “easy target” due to his promiscuity.

Prior to the allegations against Spacey, he was known as an Academy Award-winning actor who appeared in The Usual Suspects (1995), L.A. Confidential (1997), American Beauty (1999), and Recount (2008). He also starred in House of Cards, which was Netflix’s first original program on television, for five seasons.

Then in October 2017, several men alleged that Spacey had sexually harassed or assaulted them as children or teens, offenses that allegedly took place as far back as the 1980s. Out award-winning actor Anthony Rapp was one of Spacey’s first accusers.

In denying the allegations, Spacey ended up coming out publicly for the first time. A court later found Spacey not liable for damages sought by Rapp. All the other U.S. charges against Spacey were either dropped by prosecutors, dismissed by courts, or withdrawn by his accusers.

In 2020, Spacey was ordered via arbitration to pay $31 million to MRC, the studio that produced House of Cards, for allegedly violating its sexual harassment policy. Sexual misconduct allegations against Spacey from the show’s crew members caused Netflix to drop episodes it had ordered from MRC. Spacey’s appeal to have the $31 million payment overturned was denied on August 4, 2022.

Earlier this month, one of Spacey’s accusers in the U.K. trial said Spacey only came out as gay in 2017 in order to “disguise” the sexual misconduct claims against him. The man said Spacey had directed a “machine gun” of sexual comments toward him before groping his crotch inside of a London theater. The accuser said the alleged assault felt like it lasted an “eternity,” leaving him feeling “belittled” and “worthless.”

The accuser also said that he couldn’t believe Spacey’s “insensitive” 2017 coming out, claiming that Spacey only came out to “disguise” a wave of sexual misconduct accusations against him. The accuser also said the coming out showed Spacey “not taking ownership” of his past behavior.

London’s renowned Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey served for years as artistic director, found 20 allegations of abuse or misconduct against Spacey. Following the theater’s investigation, various criminal or civil proceedings against Spacey began taking place in various jurisdictions. Even a member of the Norwegian royal house accused Spacey of touching him inappropriately without consent.