Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey has been acquitted of all charges against him, which were all sex-related, in a trial in London, England.
For the past four weeks, Spacey has been on trial, facing allegations that he sexually assaulted four men between 2001 and 2013, when he worked as the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London. Spacey pled not guilty and insisted that the allegations were "madness."
All four alleged victims testified during the trial, and three of them alleged that Spacey had either grabbed their genitals without consent or forced them to touch his. However, the fourth accuser made an even more serious allegation. He claimed that he had once sought Spacey's advice regarding his burgeoning acting career. Two weeks later, Spacey invited the man over to his apartment, where Spacey then drugged the man and sexually assaulted him, he testified. After falling asleep or losing consciousness, the man said he woke up to find Spacey performing a sex act on him.
Prosecutors characterized Spacey as a "sexual bully." Spacey claimed that the encounter with the fourth accuser was "consensual" and that the two had shared "a very nice and lovely evening" together. He denied the other alleged encounters with the other three men, claiming they never happened.
Spacey also told the jury during his testimony in London's Southwark Crown Court: "I've lost everything." Spacey was one of the first big-name Hollywood stars accused during the height of the #MeToo movement in 2017. At the time, he was alleged to have attempted to sexually groom American actor Anthony Rapp when Rapp was just 14. In 2019, a civil trial in Massachusetts determined that Spacey was not liable in those allegations, but Spacey had already been removed from the popular Netflix series "House of Cards" on account of those accusations, and he was then hit with a breach of contract lawsuit and ordered to pay the show's producers $30 million to compensate for their losses.
Spacey testified at the London sexual assault trial that these latest accusers were also motivated by "money, money, and then money." One accuser has filed a lawsuit against Spacey for £500,000.
After three days and nearly 12 and a half total hours of deliberation, the jury found Spacey not guilty of all nine charges, which included sexual assault, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity. He was acquitted on his 64th birthday.
After the verdict, Spacey mouthed the words "thank you" to members of the jury. He then wiped away tears as he thanked his legal team.
Spacey still owns an apartment in London worth £2.5million but sold his Los Angeles estate for about $10 million. "I have got no money coming in, and I have had a lot of legal bills," he said during the trial.
"And I have not paid it all off, and I still owe money."
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