Kevin Spacey Found Not Guilty in Criminal Sexual Assault Trial
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The post Kevin Spacey Found Not Guilty in Criminal Sexual Assault Trial appeared first on Consequence.
Kevin Spacey has been found not guilty of all counts in the actor’s sexual assault trial in the United Kingdom.
The jury spent two days of deliberation following a four-and-a-half-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in London. They acquitted Spacey of seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
Throughout the case, the actor denied all charges levied against him. Going into the trial, Spacey had been facing three more counts of indecent assault, but the judge struck off those charges toward the end due to a “legal technicality.”
Spacey was first charged with four counts of sexual assault by the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service in May 2022, citing incidents committed against three men between 2001 and 2013. By the time the trial began last month, the number of total charges had risen to 12. Many of the allegations come from the period of time in which Spacey was the artistic director of the Old Vic theater in London, a position he held from 2004 to 2015.
Testifying, Spacey’s accusers described him as a “vile sexual predator,” and prosecutor Christine Agnew called him a “sexual bully” who “delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable.” Spacey, on the other hand, continued to paint himself as a victim, claiming that he was “crushed” to hear of the allegations, and felt that at least one of his accusers had stabbed him “in the back,” as he felt their relationship was “intimate.”
In their closing arguments, Spacey’s defense team suggested that his accusers have been lying “for reasons which, ultimately, will only ever be known to themselves.” They also seemed to suggest that Spacey was being unfairly treated on the basis that he lives an “odd” life. A member of his defense team, Patrick Gibbs KC, described Spacey as “a man who is promiscuous, not publicly out, although everyone in the businesses knows he’s gay, who wants to be just a normal guy, or at least some of the time he does — to drink beer and laugh and smoke weed and sit in the front and spend time with younger people who he’s attracted to.”
Spacey’s defense team dug in on the angle that the accusations against Spacey stem from his homosexuality. “It’s not a crime to have sex with someone of the same sex, because it’s 2023 not 1823,” Gibbs said. Notably, though, none of Spacey’s charges had anything to do with being gay or living a “promiscuous” life, but rather, were all centered around criminal acts of sexual assault.
It’s worth noting that Spacey acknowledged his role in the events, even asserting that he was likely the first to initiate physical contact, but attempted to make light of his actions. In a rather tone-deaf moment considering the gravity of the charges, Spacey described himself as “a big flirt.”
In another tone-deaf move, Spacey also used the opportunity of the trial to discuss his passion for acting. He claimed he began acting the moment he was born and recounted his rise in the industry. In a recent article published by the German magazine Zeit, he even suggested that he has acting work waiting for him. “There are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” he said.
Spacey wasn’t the sole celebrity involved with the trial. On Monday, July 17th, Elton John appeared in court via videolink from Monaco to testify on behalf of the defense. Speaking for 20 minutes, John and his husband, David Furnish, reported that Spacey attended their annual White Tie and Tiara ball in 2001, and did not attend any other year. One of Spacey’s alleged victims testified that he was groped by Spacey en route to the ball in 2004 or 2005.
Allegations of Spacey’s sexual misconduct first went public in 2017, when actor Anthony Rapp shared a story of Spacey making a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when Rapp was only 14. Since then, many other accusers have come forward with similar stories. In 2021, it was even revealed that Spacey was an associate of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and even rode on his private plane, the “Lolita Express.”
In 2021, Spacey was ordered to pay $31 million to MRC, the producer of Netflix’s House of Cards, to cover the loss in revenue caused by the actor’s termination from the show. A jury in New York sided with Spacey the following year, finding that he was liable for no damages in the sexual misconduct lawsuit brought by Rapp.
Meanwhile, last November it was reported that Spacey had booked his first film role since winning the Rapp case. He voiced a character in the upcoming British indie thriller Control, which is due out later this year.
If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexual misconduct, you can reach out for support:
RAINN Hotline
1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
http://www.rainn.org
Crisis Text Line
SMS: Text “HERE” to 741-741
http://www.facebook.com/crisistextline (chat support)
Kevin Spacey Found Not Guilty in Criminal Sexual Assault Trial
Jo Vito
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