By BRIAN MELLEY (Associated Press)
LONDON (AP) — Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey received a thrill preying on different males and escalated his habits from touchy-feely advances to hostile fondling and worse, a prosecutor advised jurors Friday throughout Spacey’s sexual assault trial in London.
Spacey is “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,” prosecutor Christine Agnew stated in her opening assertion. “His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.”
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not responsible to a dozen expenses involving 4 males and allegations that date from 2001 to 2013, when he labored at London’s Old Vic Theatre. The expenses embrace sexual assault, indecent assault and inflicting an individual to interact in penetrative sexual exercise with out consent.
The stakes for the American actor are excessive. A conviction may ship him to jail, whereas an acquittal may permit for a profession comeback.
Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs stated Spacey denied all allegations of nonconsensual exercise and advised jurors to ask themselves as they listened to the proof what — if something — had occurred when he was with the lads. He urged the alleged victims had different motives and stated that Spacey had left himself open to opportunists when he got here out as homosexual in 2020.
“What has been reimagined with a sinister spin?” Gibbs stated. “What has been made up or twisted and why and when because all of these allegations happened a long time ago.”
He stated jurors would hear truths, half-truths, deliberate exaggerations and “many damned lies.”
Spacey, sporting spectacles and wearing a lightweight grey swimsuit, white shirt and gold tie, leaned ahead behind a window within the dock, listening intently as his lawyer supplied a short overview of the case. Gibbs will current an extended opening assertion after the prosecution rests its case.
The actor served because the Old Vic Theatre’s inventive director from 2003 till 2015. The 4 males who’ve accused Spacey of sexual assault, now of their 30s or 40s, didn’t know one another, however all “had the misfortune to attract” his consideration, Agnew stated.
One sufferer stated he was incessantly groped in opposition to his needs by Spacey within the early 2000s, culminating with a day when he was driving and the actor, who had been consuming, grabbed his privates so exhausting it took his breath away and he practically ran off the street. He advised Spacey to by no means do this once more.
Spacey “laughed and commented that his getting angry simply turned him on,” Agnew stated.
Spacey narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips as Agnew spoke, often jotting notes with a pencil on the pages of a big black binder he carried into courtroom.
During questioning by police final 12 months, Spacey stated he was “baffled and deeply hurt” by these allegations from somebody he thought-about a buddy. He stated the occasions had been reimagined into lies.
Agnew stated Spacey gave the impression to be assured the lads wouldn’t inform anybody — that the phrase of a celeb can be extra plausible than from somebody who wasn’t well-known.
“None of the men wanted to be touched by Kevin Spacey … in a sexual way, but he doesn’t seem to have cared very much for their feelings,” the prosecutor stated. “He did what he wanted to do for his own personal sexual gratification.”
Another man who stated Spacey groped him at a charity occasion in 2005 solely advised one buddy about it till talking with police in 2017.
“Kevin Spacey … was a star, a golden boy as he put it,” Agnew stated in regards to the man. “He wasn’t sure he would be believed, and even if he had been, he didn’t think that he would receive any support.”
In his assertion to police, Spacey stated he hadn’t performed something with out consent. He stated it was “entirely possible and indeed likely” he had made a “clumsy pass” however denied grabbing anybody’s crotch. He urged among the males have been searching for monetary achieve.
An aspiring actor who stated he reached out to Spacey for profession recommendation ended up at his London condominium consuming beer and smoking marijuana in 2008. He both fell asleep or handed out on the couch and when he awoke, Spacey was performing oral intercourse on him, Agnew stated.
The man, who was in his early 20s, stated Spacey advised him to not inform anybody what had occurred and to not point out he had been in Spacey’s condominium. The man stated he was in shock as Spacey held the door open for him to depart, and that he then walked to a bus cease the place he sat down and cried.
He determined to talk with police in 2017 after studying about allegations in opposition to Spacey within the U.S., Agnew stated.
Spacey’s profession was derailed when sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him arose because the #MeToo motion exploded. He was written off the Netflix political thriller “House of Cards,” the place he performed lead character Frank Underwood, a ruthless and corrupt congressman who turns into president. He was lower from the finished movie “All the Money in the World,” with the scenes getting reshot with Christopher Plummer.
A jury of 9 males and 5 ladies, together with two alternates, will determine his destiny throughout the four-week trial in Southwark Crown Court, the place he’s recognized by his full identify, Kevin Spacey Fowler. The actor, who has properties in London and the U.S., is free on bail.
Spacey grew to become probably the most celebrated actors of his era within the Nineteen Nineties, starring in movies together with “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “LA Confidential.”
He has earned a number of outstanding performing awards for the theater, the silver display screen and tv. He received an Academy Award for supporting actor in “The Usual Suspects” in 1995 and greatest actor Oscar for the 1999 film “American Beauty.”
Spacey just lately had his first movie function in a number of years, showing in 2022 in Italian director Franco Nero’s “The Man Who Drew God,” and taking part in the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman within the biopic “Once Upon a Time in Croatia.” He additionally stars within the unreleased U.S. movie “Peter Five Eight.”
He has urged he can be in demand if he’s acquitted.
“There are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges,” Spacey stated in an interview revealed this month in Germany’s Zeit journal.
Agnew advised jurors they must consider the credibility of the victims and determine in the event that they have been telling the reality or manufacturing allegations for revenue.
“The prosecution suggest that Mr. Spacey … abused the power and influence that his reputation and fame afforded him,” Agnew stated. “Taking what and who he wanted, when he wanted.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”