Kevin Spacey took a spectacular pause in his testimony Thursday and appeared to virtually choke up as he recalled the “intimate” and “somewhat sexual” friendship he shared with a gentleman now accusing the actor of violently groping him. He stated he was “crushed” when he realized of the allegations.
“I under no circumstances imagined that (the male) I knew would … 20 decades afterwards stab me in the back again,” Spacey testified in his possess defense in his sexual assault demo in what could be the most consequential talking element of his daily life.
Spacey spoke in a calm voice and earnest demeanor — humorous, humble and self-deprecating at occasions — as he breezed more than his career and then fast-forwarded to the early 2000s when he was in London doing work at the Old Vic Theatre.
Four adult males have accused the two-time Oscar winner of sexually assaulting them in between 2001 and 2013, describing disturbing encounters that escalated from unwanted touching to intense crotch grabbing. Just one male who named Spacey a “vile sexual predator” mentioned he passed out or fell asleep at the actor’s London flat and woke up to uncover the actor executing oral intercourse on him.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew has identified as Spacey a “sexual bully” who “delights in earning other individuals really feel powerless and uncomfortable.”
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 12 fees that involve sexual and indecent assault counts and one depend of resulting in a particular person to engage in penetrative sexual exercise devoid of consent.
Just one of his accusers stated Spacey on numerous occasions about the several years had touched his internal thigh, buttocks and crotch in unwelcome methods that built him awkward.
The fondling culminated when the man was the moment driving Spacey and the actor grabbed his crotch so violently he pretty much ran off the road, the person experienced testified.
The alleged sufferer instructed law enforcement he warned Spacey to never do it yet again and threatened to knock him out.
“That in no way transpired,” Spacey testified. “I was not on a suicide mission in any of people a long time.”
He described the romance substantially otherwise, appearing wistful as he appeared at a image the person despatched him from a mountainous trek he took to raise funds for charity.
Spacey said the gentleman was amusing and charming and recalled their flirtatious time with each other, stating he possibly took the direct in making bodily make contact with: “I’m a massive flirt.”
Slowly and gradually, the two gentlemen commenced touching each other, Spacey mentioned, but it in no way went substantially even further, due to the fact the gentleman designed it distinct he didn’t want that.
“He mentioned things like, ‘This is new for me,’ so I assume he may have been shocked by his reaction,” Spacey reported. “The only issue he produced distinct was he didn’t want to go more than we were being heading and I respected that.”
Spacey’s description of mild stroking was in immediate contradiction to what the alleged victims testified about. They claimed he caught them by shock when he aggressively grabbed their privates by means of their clothing.
“It was not like a caress,” a person gentleman testified. “It was like a cobra coming out and obtaining keep.”
Spacey named that man’s account “madness” and reported it hardly ever occurred. He also denied he designed racially offensive remarks to the guy for the duration of a rehearsal for a charity theater celebration.
Spacey poked a hole in the driver’s story by contacting the timing of the account into query. The guy testified he was grabbed while driving Spacey in 2004 or 2005 to an once-a-year gala that Elton John holds.
Spacey offered do the job schedules and itineraries that showed he was filming considerably away — once in Australia — those people several years. He reported he only attended the event in 2001.
The guy claimed he could have had the dates completely wrong, but that he remembered the groping incident remaining the last straw. He mentioned he stopped spending time all over him after that incident.
Spacey testified that the male still has pics of the two of them collectively posted on social media.
Spacey began his testimony revisiting his start in theater and transition to the huge screen, vocation, joking that his mother would say that he commenced acting the moment he emerged from the womb.
The American actor was a person of the largest stars of the silver and little screens when sexual misconduct accusations introduced his profession to a halt. If convicted, he could deal with a jail expression that would doom his hopes of a comeback.
Spacey explained to German journal Zeit in an posting posted final month: “There are men and women correct now who are all set to seek the services of me the moment I am cleared of these costs in London.”
Spacey, who owns households in London and the U.S., is no cost on unconditional bail.
