Kevin Spacey Charged With 4 Counts of Sexual Assault By British Prosecutors
Authorities have not said whether they'll seek to have Spacey extradited to Great Britain in order to formally charge him.
Actor Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men in Great Britain, according to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service.
The actor, best known for his roles in The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, and the Netflix drama House of Cards, has also been charged with one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, reports CNN.
The charges stem from two alleged incidents in London in 2005, another two in 2008, and a 2013 incident in Gloucestershire.
The alleged victim in the 2005 incidents is now in his 40s, while the other two men are now in their 30s, according to London Metropolitan Police.
Spacey served as artistic director of London’s Old Vic theater from 2003 to 2015.
London Metropolitan Police decided to charge Spacey following a review of evidence gathered in investigating the allegations against him. While the charges were authorized on Thursday, Spacey is not currently in England or Wales and cannot be formally charged until he enters one of those countries.
A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service did not comment on whether it would seek Spacey’s extradition if he chooses not to travel to England or Wales to avoid being charged.
Spacey was previously accused of sexual misconduct in 2017 by actor Anthony Rapp, who claimed Spacey made unwanted sexual advances toward him at a party at Spacey’s house in 1986, when he was 14 years old.
Rapp has since filed a lawsuit against Spacey alleging assault, battery, and infliction of emotional distress.
Spacey’s lawyers have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit, claiming Rapp’s account is false and that the alleged incident never occurred.
Soon after Rapp’s allegations were made public, a former television anchor accused Spacey of sexually assaulting her son, and 20 people who had worked with Spacey a the Old Vic accused him of inappropriate behavior, according to The New York Times.
One actor, Roberto Cavazos wrote in a Facebook post that he “had a couple of nasty encounters with Spacey that were on the verge of being able to be called harassment,” adding, “it seems that it only took to be a male under the age of 30 for Mr. Spacey to feel free to touch us. It was so common that it even became a local joke (in very bad taste).”
The theater commissioned an independent investigation, in which Spacey did not take part, and issued a report with their findings.
Although the theater was not able to verify the allegations against Spacey, the report’s authors wrote that the actor’s “stardom and status at the Old Vic may have prevented people, and in particular junior staff or young actors, from feeling that they could speak up or raise a hand for help.”
In 2018, Spacey was charged with sexually assaulting the television anchor’s 18-year-old son in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the case after the alleged victim invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to continue testifying, notes the Times.
A massage therapist in California sued Spacey in 2019, accusing him of groping and trying to kiss him before offering him oral sex during a massage. The accuser died unexpectedly ahead of the trial and the case was dismissed after the man’s estate dropped the lawsuit.
Shortly after Rapp’s accusations were made public, TV and film producers started dropping Spacey from various projects, with his character in House of Cards being killed off.
But his career has rebounded as of late, with Spacey appearing in smaller films, including an Italian feature, The Man Who Drew God, the American thriller Peter Five Eight, and Bilo jednom u Hrvatskoj, a movie in which he plays Franco Tudjman, the former Communist general who eventually became Croatia’s first president after breaking away from Yugoslavia.
Spacey and his lawyers have continued to deny that he committed any wrongdoing.
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