Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey is accused in a sexual assault trial in London of groping four different men during his star-studded career.
The 63-year-old actor has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, insisting one of the claims is a lie, sexual encounters have been reimagined as “sinister”, and one was merely a “clumsy pass”.
Here is a reminder of the evidence heard so far:
The prosecution case
Lead prosecutor Christine Agnew KC opened the trial at the end of June with accusations that Spacey is a “sexual bully” who abused his fame and power to target the alleged victims. She called him “predatory” and suggested he “delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable”.
The House of Cards star sat in the glass-fronted dock at Southwark crown court just few metres from Ms Agnew as she painted a picture of him as someone who “took what and who he wanted, when he wanted”.
“He is an extremely famous actor who has won a number of awards”, she said. “He is also…a man who sexually assaults other men.
“A man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable, a sexual bully.”
“Snakey” Spacey
Spacey’s first accuser says he was touched sexually on multiple occasions when in a car with the actor, and also when they were alone together in a lift.
He called Spacey “touchy feely” at first, but eventually decided he was a “creep” and told jurors the star was “slippery, snakey”.
The man claimed the double Oscar-winner touched his leg as he drove, smacked him on the bottom on other occasions, and groped his crotch repeatedly.
He says matters came to a head as he drove Spacey to a party hosted by Sir Elton John, when he claims the actor had been drinking and grabbed his genitals so hard that he almost crashed the car.
“He hit me right in the nuts - it took my breath away”, he said, claiming Spacey was “laughing and giggling”.
The man said he was “disgusted” by Spacey’s behaviour and threatened to “knock his block off” if he did it again.
He also accused the star of trying to “groom” him into gay encounters.
The man faced questions from defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC about whether he had consented to being touched.
“Did what happened lead you to question your own sexuality?” asked the barrister, to which the man replied: “Not at all. Ridiculous question.”
He also denied “hopping on a bandwagon” after Spacey was first accused of sexual assaults.
What Spacey says
The actor says he was “crushed” when the man came forward to accuse him: “I never thought (he) would …stab me in the back.”
Spacey said he and the man had “jovial” interactions and “enjoyed each other’s company”, and told jurors the touching was consensual.
“Over time, slowly - I’m assuming it was me - I began to touch him in more romantic ways, intimate ways”, he said.
“It didn’t happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way. It was gentle, it was touching, and it was in my mind romantic.”
Spacey ‘panicked after party grope’
Spacey is used to facing the cameras after a career in the Hollywood spotlight, and he has been all smiles and waves as he arrived and left the criminal court in central London each day.
But a second man accusing him of sexual assault says a “panicked” look was on Spacey’s face after he was allegedly rebuffed for kissing him on the neck and grabbing his crotch.
Spacey joined the man and his friends for a night-out at the pub, and invited them back to his holiday home near Oxford for an after-party.
The young man said his friends had nicknamed Spacey “K-Dog”, they sunk shots together, and quizzed him about his movie star life.
But he says things turned sour at Spacey’s rental home when the star sexually assaulted him, saying: “Be cool, be cool”.
“I put my arm between us and pushed him against a wall”, he said. “I said ‘I’m sorry man, I don’t bat for that team’. He had a panicked look on his face.”
The man said the incident became a running joke between friends in subsequent years: “My claim to fame, that the same hand that held an Oscar had held my crotch.”
What Spacey says
The star accepted many of the details of the encounter, but disputed that what happened amounted to sexual assault and called it a “clumsy pass”.
“I’m only happy he testified the moment he told me he was not interested, I stopped”, he said, adding that he tried to apologise to the man the following day for “misreading the signals”.
‘Like a cobra’ at West End gala
A man in his 20s says he was hit with a “barrage of vile comments” after meeting Spacey at a West End theatre.
He suggested the actor smelled of alcohol, grabbed him by the crotch, and “asked me lewd questions directed towards my race, size and character”.
“I remember for a minute freezing pushing his arm away”, he said, of the alleged grope.
“This is a hugely talented actor I was excited to meet. And what I got was a man who smelt of booze, a pervert who was rude, and a drug addict, I assumed.”
He described the attack as “like a cobra coming and getting hold”.
The incident is said to have happened at a charity gala attended by the likes of Helen Mirren, Judi Dench and Joan Collins.
Spacey’s barrister suggested the claim did not make sense, that others would have seen and heard an attack taking place, and accused the man of inventing the allegation.
What Spacey says
The actor was effusive in his denials of this incident, telling jurors the allegations are entirely invented.
“I never said any of those things he claimed I said to him, and wouldn’t, and never have, to anyone in my life”, he said. “It’s madness. It never happened.”
He went on to deny claims he had turned up to the event looking “dishevelled” and apparently drunk.
“I wouldn’t do anything to embarrass myself in such a way”, he said.
Actor ‘drugged and assaulted’
Spacey met the fourth accuser, an actor, after offering to meet and give him tips on furthering his career, it is said.
The man said he wrote to Spacey asking for help, but was shocked and “starstruck” when the movie star agreed to meet him outside Waterloo Station.
He said they ended up at Spacey’s London apartment, smoking weed, drinking, and tucking into leftover pizza.
The man claims Spacey moved in for a “weird” hug and ended up with the star’s head “nuzzling” his groin.
He says he soon “conked out” on the sofa and believes he was drugged, only to wake up with Spacey performing a sex act on him.
“The only sexual experience I have had with a man was when I was sexually assaulted by that vile sexual predator”, he said.
Spacey’s barrister suggested the man had consented to the sexual contact in a bid to boost his acting career, a claim that was denied.
What Spacey says
Spacey said he struggled to remember the man when first questioned by police, but later recalled an “odd” ending to a consensual sexual encounter.
“My initial reaction was this was someone shaking me down”, he said.
He denied drugging the man or performing a sex act on him as he slept: I would never be behaving the way he has claimed, it makes no logical sense.
“I remember an encounter I had with someone in my flat. After we had a sexual encounter in which I had gone to the bathroom, I came back from the bathroom and it was like something had changed.
“The person I had this intimate moment with was suddenly awkward and fumbling, saying ‘I have to go, have to catch the last bus or last train’.
“I don’t want to say running out of my apartment, but he hurriedly left. It felt very odd.”
Spacey called it a “very nice and lovely evening”, and said he believes he kept in touch with the man for months afterwards.
A-list on the court list
Kevin Spacey’s life as an A-List Hollywood star came to shuddering halt when he was first accused of sexual misconduct in 2017.
The trial in London has heard of lavish parties he attended, adulation at film premieres, and the famous friends in his sphere.
Jurors were told Spacey once gifted a table tennis table to Dame Judi Dench after they appeared together in the film The Shipping News, having apparently bonded over the sport during downtime from filming.
The actor appears on the court list under his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler, but is referred to by all as simply ‘Kevin Spacey’.
His former boss at the Old Vic, Sally Greene, has been accused of having “laughed off” allegations of sexual abuse made about the actor.
And jurors have heard of “rumours” that circulated about Spacey’s alleged conduct. One of the alleged victims said friends warned him Spacey was known to like “young straight men”, while another claimed it was common knowledge that Spacey was “up to no good”.
Spacey’s case
In a speech to jurors at the start of the trial, Mr Gibbs said the actor denies all the allegations of non-consensual sexual contact.
“Mr Spacey has come back to the UK, as he said he would, to answer them and he will say in full in due course what actually happened.
“What actually happened, if anything, what has been re-imagined with a sinister spin, what has been made up or twisted, and why, and when, because all of these things alleged against him happened a long time ago.”
He said the prosecution case is built on truths, half-truths, “deliberate exaggerations” and “damned lies”.
“Likely obstacles are rumours and fame and the responses of others to fame, and secrecy, and shame, and sexual confusion”, he added.
“You will get some insights into fame, both sides of fame, and the way it changes the way other people behave towards you once you are famous.
“What do people want from you once you are famous, what do the complainants hope for.
“Mr Spacey was rich and influential. The flip side of that…is what did they want from his wealth and from his influence. What do they still want?”
Spacey broke down in tears at the end of his first day of evidence, telling the court how he faced anger from the gay community for his initial response to the sexual assault claims, he has barely worked in six years, and his fortune has been wiped out by legal battles.
“My world exploded”, he said. “There was a rush to judgement and before the first question was asked or answered, I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days.”
Spacey has pleaded not guilty to three counts of indecent assault, 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.
The trial continues.
