Kevin Spacey charged with sexual assaults against three men
Three years after the abandonment of charges against him in his country, the American actor Kevin Spacey has been charged in the United Kingdom with four sexual assaults on men, at a time when he was artistic director of a theater from London.
Thursday’s announcement from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the British prosecutor’s office, gives a new echo to the accusations that have emerged since the Weinstein scandal, which put a stop to the career of the star of House of Cards.
“The CPS has authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, on four counts of sexual assault against three men,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS’s Special Crimes Division, said in a statement.
“He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without their consent,” she added, adding that these charges “follow a review of evidence collected by the Metropolitan Police in his investigation.
British media claimed that the actor has not been formally charged in the UK, as he is not there at the moment.
The charges against him cover a period from March 2005 to April 2013.
Two charges relate to acts of sexual assault in March 2005 in London on the same complainant. Another sexual assault involves a second complainant in August 2008, who also accuses him of forcing him into penetrative sexual activity without his consent.
Finally, Kevin Spacey is charged with a fourth sexual assault on a third complainant in April 2013 in Gloucestershire.
London police said the complainants, whose names have not been made public, are now in their 30s and 40s.
Scotland Yard had opened an investigation after receiving complaints of sexual assault against the actor, some of which were allegedly committed in the Lambeth district of London, where the Old Vic theater is located, of which he was artistic director between 2004 and 2015 .
“Alleged inappropriate behavior”
These accusations were made in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, named after the American film producer targeted by numerous accusations of harassment and sexual assault, revealed in the fall of 2017 by the New York Times and the New Yorker.
The Old Vic theater then commissioned an internal investigation, conducted by a legal firm, into the behavior of its former artistic director. In total, “20 personal testimonies of alleged inappropriate behavior by Kevin Spacey” had been collected.
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The actor has also been the subject of investigations in the United States.
The announcement from the British prosecution coincides with Kevin Spacey appearing before a New York judge on Thursday for a procedural hearing in a civil suit brought by actor Anthony Rapp, according to US court documents. Anthony Rapp had accused Kevin Spacey of having made sexual advances to him when he was a teenager, which Kevin Spacey denied and the action was dropped in criminal proceedings.
Kevin Spacey had also been charged with indecent assault and sexual assault in the state of Massachusetts, but the charges were dropped in July 2019. He was accused of having, in July 2016, got his hands on the penis of an 18-year-old young man employed in a bar, after having made him drink.
This wave of accusations had serious consequences on the career and reputation of the two-time Oscar-winning American actor (for American beauty and Usual suspects).
He had been landed by Netflix from the series House of Cards in which he played the main character.
Mr. Spacey was also replaced by Canadian actor Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s crime film, All the Money in the World.
In November 2021, the actor was ordered to pay $31 million to the company that produced the House of Cards series.
This production company, MRC, had sought damages for loss of income attributed to the exit of the actor from this series due to accusations of harassment and sexual abuse.
