Published on May 25th, 2022

Kevin Spacey’s legal battles might be far from over. The disgraced Oscar winner is now contending with four sexual-assault charges in the United Kingdom.

The former “House of Cards” star, 62, is facing multiple allegations related to events from 2005 to 2013, according to a Thursday statement from the Crown Prosecution Service. Spacey was the artistic director of London’s famed Old Vic Theatre during that time.

The alleged victims were not named in law enforcement’s announcement. The first man, who is said to now be in his 40s, is involved in two charges and accuses Spacey of sexual assault in London twice in March 2005.

The third charge involves a man, now in his 30s, who accused the actor of sexual assault in London in August 2008. CPS said Spacey has also been charged “with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent” — a serious sexual offense, according to the BBC. That charge relates to the same man.

The third man, who is also in his 30s, accuses Spacey of sexual assault in Gloucestershire in western England in April 2013.

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division, told the Associated Press that the charges follow a review of evidence gathered by London’s Metropolitan Police.

Spacey ran the Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015 and was questioned by British police in 2019 about allegations by several men that he had assaulted them. The actor was also under investigation in 2017 for 20 allegations the Old Vic received concerning “a range of inappropriate behavior.”

Ainslie told the BBC that CPS “reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr. Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.” But the CPS could not confirm or deny whether the actor would be extradited to the U.K.

Representatives for Spacey did not immediately respond Thursday to The Times’ request for comment.

In April, Spacey’s legal team asked a New York court to throw out a protracted sex-abuse lawsuit brought by “Rent” and “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp. They argued that allegations that Spacey abused the then-teenage Rapp at a 1980s party are false and that the alleged events never occurred, AP reported.

Rapp was the first alleged victim to publicly accuse the once-untouchable Spacey of sexual misconduct at the height of the #MeToo movement. The Oscar winner came under intense scrutiny in October 2017 after BuzzFeed published a report in which Rapp alleged that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him at a party in 1986, when Rapp was just 14 years old.

Less than three hours after Rapp’s story appeared online, Spacey responded to the allegation on Twitter, apologizing to Rapp, even though he said he did not remember the encounter Rapp alleged. Spacey then revealed that he is gay but was widely criticized for coming out in that moment.

Spacey has fallen hard since and was dismissed from his leading role in Netflix’s “House of Cards.” The critically acclaimed series proceeded with its final season without the actor and unceremoniously killed off his character, the conniving Frank Underwood. He also was dropped from Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World.”

Though Spacey has kept a mostly low profile, he has appeared in bizarre videos as Underwood and in a podcast episode.

In 2020, prosecutors in Los Angeles rejected a sexual battery case in October because the accuser had died. Prosecutors in Massachusetts dropped a separate case in July after the 18-year-old man who accused Spacey of groping him refused to testify.

Original News: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-26/kevin-spacey-charged-britain-sexual-assault

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