Kevin Spacey acquitted of all 9 sex assault charges against him as actor maintained innocence and stated accusers lied for money, following an avalanche of claims against him following accusations by then teen actor, Anthony Rapp of making sexual advances.
Cleared to resume his illustrious career … A London jury has acquitted Oscar winning actor, Kevin Spacey of all nine charges of sexual assault in alleged claims of committing historical sex offences against four men.
After more than 12 hours of deliberation following a month long trial, a jury 10 to 2 acquitted the double Oscar-winning actor of nine charges, including sexual assault, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
Spacey, who turned 64 on Wednesday, began to cry and mouthed ‘thank you’ to the jury, before wiping away tears with a tissue.
How an acting great’s world imploded
Speaking on the steps of the court after the verdicts were delivered, the American actor thanked the jury, his legal team and his loyal manager and longtime friend, Evan Lowenstein, for standing by him.
He said: ‘I imagine that many of you can understand that there’s a lot for me to process after what has just happened today. But I would like to say that I’m enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts, carefully, before they reached their decision.
‘And I am humbled by the outcome today. I also want to thank the staff inside this courthouse, the security, my legal team and Evan Lowenstein for being here every day.’
As perhaps the most high profile victim of the Me Too Movement, Spacey had described how his ‘world exploded’ and he ‘lost everything in a matter of days’ in 2017 after being accused of making sexual advances to American actor Anthony Rapp when he was just 14.
The allegation, which Spacey was later cleared of, led to an avalanche of claims from at least 30 men in America and Britain.
Sexual bully?
After a five-year Scotland Yard investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service charged the House of Cards star with a series of sex attacks on four men between 2001 and 2013.
During the four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, jurors were told by prosecutors that the actor had aggressively groped three of the men in incidents between 2004 and 2013 in the United Kingdom, when he was working at London’s Old Vic theatre.
The fourth said Spacey performed oral sex on him while he had passed out in the Hollywood star’s London apartment.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew told jurors that Spacey was a ‘sexual bully’ who took what he wanted when he wanted.
She said he was shielded by a ‘trinity of protection’: he knew men were unlikely to complain; they wouldn’t be believed if they did complain; and if they did complain, no action would be taken because he was powerful.
Throughout the trial Spacey was sure of his innocence, repeatedly denying all the charges against him. Spacey maintained his accusers were motivated by ‘money, money and then money’.
Spacey can add another stellar winning performance: his freedom and reputation
Spacey in his defense had argued that the case against him was weak, and that the incidents, if they had occurred, were consensual.
He said he was promiscuous, a ‘big flirt’ who had ‘casual, indiscriminate sexual encounters’.
While he might have made a clumsy pass at one of the men, he said he had never assaulted anyone and suggested that the accusers had come forward to make money.
Spacey told the court three of the four complainants had brought civil lawsuits against him, saying one had contacted him seeking a payment of more than 450,000 pounds ($577,400), and accepted tasking private investigators to look into at least three of the men.
The entertainer’s lawyer Patrick Gibbs said it was not a crime to like sex or have casual sex even if you were a famous person and that it was ‘not a crime to have sex with someone of the same sex, because it’s 2023, not 1823’.
The jurors also heard from singer Elton John and his husband David Furnish who gave evidence as part of Spacey’s defence.
Fall out from the accusations led to the demise of the actor’s career.
Spacey was booted from ‘House of Cards’ along with his scenes in ‘All the Money in the World,’ being scrubbed and being replaced by Christopher Plummer. Aside from some small projects, Spacey has barely worked as an actor in six years.
A New York jury last year cleared Spacey in a $40m lawsuit by ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ actor Anthony Rapp on allegations dating back three decades.
Spacey had viewed the London case as a chance for redemption, telling German magazine Zeit last month that there were ‘people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London.’
