By Tony O’Reilly-
Two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey is going on trial Wednesday in a London court on charges of sexually assaulting four men two decades ago.
The actor , who is charged under his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler — is free on bail.
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Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges including sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in sex activity without consent. He could face a prison sentence if convicted.
He arrived this morning in a taxi wearing a pink tie and a navy suit, taking a moment to smile, wave and say ‘Good morning’ to people assembled outside court before making his way into the building.
The trial at Southwark Crown Court will last four weeks and, as yet, it is unknown whether Spacey will take the stand in his own defence.
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Spacey pleaded not guilty in January to three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent. He also previously denied four further charges of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
The 63-year-old, who has also starred in House of Cards, The Usual Suspects and Se7en, will face allegations from between 2001 and 2013. He was also Artistic Director at The Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015. The Old Vic investigated, having received 20 allegations of inappropriate behaviour against the star and a subsequent report said there had been a “cult of personality” around him.
In an initial court hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in June, Spacey’s lawyer, Patrick Gibbs QC, said his client “strenuously denies any and all criminality in this case”
“There are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” Spacey said in a rare interview published this month in Germany’s Zeit magazine. He said the media had turned him into a “monster.”
The charges involving men now in their 30s or 40s date from 2001 to 2013 — covering most of the decade when he lived in Britain and served as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre until 2015.
Spacey’s legal battles came amid the #MeToo movement in the United States when allegations led to him being written off the Netflix political thriller “House of Cards,” where he played lead character Frank Underwood, a ruthless and corrupt congressman who becomes president. He was cut from the completed film “All the Money in the World,” and the scenes reshot with Christopher Plummer.
Spacey became one of the most celebrated actors of his generation in 1990s, starring in films including “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “LA Confidential.” He won his second Oscar, for best actor, in the 1999 movie “American Beauty.”
He recently had his first film roles in several years, appearing in 2022 in Italian director Franco Nero’s “The Man Who Drew God,” and playing the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in biopic “Once Upon a Time in Croatia.” He also stars in the unreleased U.S. film “Peter Five Eight.”
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