Kevin Spacey has been cleared of sexual assault in one of the UK’s most high-profile #MeToo trials.
The 64-year-old Oscar-winning actor wept as he was found not guilty on Wednesday of sexually assaulting four men after a four-week trial at Southwark crown court.
Wearing a dark suit, pink shirt and burgundy pocket square and tie, Spacey looked to his legal team as jurors cleared him of all nine sex offences against four men over nine years.
The Hollywood star had denied the charges – claiming the allegations against him were “madness”, “absolute bollocks” and a “stab in the back”. He claimed the men were financially motivated and that one victim was after “money, money, and then money”.
The judge, Mr Justice Mark Wall, praised the lawyers in the case and said: “The defendant may be discharged.”
Spacey appeared emotional and hugged his legal team after he was discharged on his birthday.
The actor, who stood trial under his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler, was found not guilty of nine sexual offences against four men in their 20s and 30s, between 2004 and 2013.
The prosecutor, Christine Agnew KC, accused Spacey of being a “sexual bully” who exploited his fame and power to abuse the complainants.
Jurors rejected the prosecution’s claims that Spacey had “aggressively” grabbed three men by the crotch and had performed a sex act on an aspiring actor while he was asleep in his flat.
Spacey told the court that he had consensual sexual encounters with a driver and the aspiring actor, and that he may have made “a clumsy pass” at a man at a party in the Cotswolds. But he rejected claims that he had grabbed a man’s crotch “like a cobra” at a West End theatre in the mid-2000s, telling jurors: “It never happened.”
In his evidence, Spacey gave jurors an insight into his relationship with famous faces and name-dropped fellow actors including Jack Lemmon, Val Kilmer, Richard Harris and Joan Collins.
He also recounted showbiz anecdotes including buying Dame Judi Dench a ping-pong table and purchasing “the most expensive Mini Cooper ever” at a charity auction hosted by Elton John. John and his husband David Furnish were called as defence witnesses in the trial.
Spacey had previously denied 12 charges – seven sexual assaults, three indecent assaults, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
A further charge of indecent assault was added mid-trial, taking to 13 the total number of alleged offences listed on the indictment.
Last Wednesday, the four indecent assault charges were struck off by the judge due to a “legal technicality”.
The court heard that two of the complainants in the case were pursuing Spacey in the civil courts.