Kevin Spacey denies being guilty of sexual offenses in front of a British court

First modification: 07/14/2022 – 22:12

In room number one of the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, located in London, actor Kevin Spacey, who wore his usual glasses and dressed in a formal suit, only intervened to confirm his name and date of birth. He then listened carefully to the five sex crimes he is charged with and pleaded “not guilty.”

The meeting lasted 20 minutes and freed the actor from being arrested. The trial to determine whether he is guilty or not guilty will begin on June 6, 2023 and is expected to last three to four weeks.

If the court rules against him, Spacey could face, at best, a six-month prison sentence or a fine. However, in the worst scenario, he could even be sentenced to life in prison for the crime of penetration without consent.

Chronology of events

Kevin Spacey arrived in London in 2004 to be the artistic director of the ‘Old Vic’ theater, a direction he held until 2015. It was precisely during this period that he crossed paths with three men, who today accuse him of assault and sexual abuse. According to the Police, the crimes were committed over eight years. More exactly between 2005 and 2013.

The first man who denounced Spacey would have been sexually assaulted twice in March 2005, when he was around 20 years old and the actor was 45 years old.

In August 2008, a second man, now in his 30s, was also allegedly assaulted and forced to participate in sexual activity that involved penetration.

Five years later, in April 2013, another sexual assault case was brought to a third victim, this time outside of London, in the county of Gloucestershire.

judicial mess

The formal accusation of the authorities to the movie star was known in June after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) opened the judicial process at the end of May after collecting the complaints of the three men .

So Spacey’s appointment this Thursday before the British justice was not the first: on June 16, the Westminster Magistrates Court had made him appear. On that visit, Judge Tanweer Ikram allowed the actor to remain free until the Old Bailey High Court made a decision on Thursday, which also temporarily exempted him from detention.

The magistrates transferred the case to this higher court due to the seriousness of the accusation of non-consensual sex by the second complainant.

“Kevin Spacey strongly denies any foul play in this case,” the actor’s attorney, Patrick Gibbs, said on June 16.

It has been his attorney who has defended the actor since justice summoned him for the first time. On the courts and in the media, Gibbs insists on “flatly denying any criminality” and clarifies that he “will prove it during the process.”

It would not be the first time

Kevin Spacey is not just another actor. That is why the complaints against him have received so much media attention. The American artist has won two Oscars for his performances in the films ‘The Usual Suspects’ (1995) and ‘American Beauty’ (1999).

However, his weight in the film academy has not been an impediment for the artistic world to react forcefully. Spacey was fired five years ago from the hit TV series “House of Cards” and also removed from the movie “All the Money in the World.” These facts have caused his progressive disappearance from the screens since 2017, when he was first accused of sexual abuse.

Said first accusation was made by the renowned actor Anthony Rapp, who dared to speak publicly about the rape he would have suffered as a minor by Sapcey in 1986 after a party. Rapp was motivated to denounce what had happened more than thirty years ago thanks to the activism against sexual abuse that led the ‘Me Too’ movement that emerged in 2017 as a result of the notorious ‘Weinstein’ case.

After Anthony Rapp’s complaint, more artists accused Spacey of the same crimes, but most legal proceedings against him have prescribed or have concluded only with compensation.

In this way, if the British justice rules against Kevin Spacey next year, it would be the first time that the actor could be close to stepping on a prison.

With EFE, Reuters and local media