LONDON — Kevin Spacey is “sexual bully” who “delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable,” a British prosecutor told a London court Friday as the disgraced actor’s trial on sex offense charges formally got underway.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen allegations of sexual offenses alleged to have been committed against four men between the years of 2001 and 2013.
He has been charged with indecent and sexual assaults and an offense of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
In her opening statement at London’s Southwark Crown Court, Prosecutor Christine Agnew told the jury that Spacey was an extremely famous and award-winning actor, Reuters reported.
“He is also, the prosecution allege, a man who sexually assaults other men,” she said, according to the news agency. “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. His preferred method of assault is it appears to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.”
Addressing the jury directly, she said that it “was only right” that they “might feel a little star-struck or overwhelmed,” but she urged them to “keep yourself grounded and true to the oath that you have taken.”
The actor, wearing a grey suit, gold-coloured tie and glasses, watched from the dock, according to Reuters.
Spacey, who won Oscars for best actor in “American Beauty” in 1999, four years after he won best supporting actor for his role in “The Usual Suspects,” pleaded not guilty last July to five of the charges against him, four of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.
In January he pleaded not guilty to seven more sex offense charges, denying a number of alleged sexual assaults against one man from 2001 to 2004.
Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs said Spacey, who is identified in court by his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler, denied all allegations of nonconsensual activity and told jurors to ask themselves as they listened to the evidence what — if anything — had occurred when he was with the men.
He also suggested the alleged victims had other motives and said that Spacey had left himself open to opportunists when he came out as gay in 2020. Jurors, he added, would hear truths, half-truths, deliberate exaggerations and “many damned lies.”
Spacey also attended court on Wednesday, where the judge, Mr. Justice Mark Wall, told the 14 jurors that they must not let media coverage or the defendant’s fame influence their thoughts.
“Many of you know his name or have seen his films. That doesn’t disqualify you from sitting on this jury,” he said.
Criminal trials in England typically use 12 jurors, but two more were chosen in case someone realizes they know an alleged victim or someone else connected with the case.
The trial continues and is expected to last just over four weeks.
