Kevin Spacey: ‘Humbled’ actor found not guilty of sexual offences against four men
Kevin Spacey said he is “humbled” after being found not guilty of committing sexual offences against four men in the UK between 2001 and 2013.
The 64-year-old double Oscar winner cried as he was cleared after a trial which started at the end of June, during which he was described as a “sexual bully” by the prosecution.
On his birthday, he nodded at jurors as they left court, crying and wiping his face with a tissue, before letting out a big sigh and thanking court staff.
Jury reaches verdict – follow live
In a short statement to the crowd of waiting media outside Southwark Crown Court, Spacey said: “I imagine that many of you can understand that there is a lot for me to process after what has just happened today.
“But I would like to say that I am enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision and I am humbled by the outcome today.
“I also want to thank the staff inside this courthouse, the security and all those who took care of us every single day, my legal team Evan and Lucy for being here every day and that’s all I have to say for the moment. Thank you very much.”
Giving evidence, Spacey fought back tears as he told how his world “exploded” when other allegations first emerged against him in the US in 2017.
“There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days,” he told jurors.
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Actor Kevin Spacey had denied all the charges against him
Spacey, who was artistic director at The Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015, was accused of drugging and performing a sex act on a former aspiring actor while he slept, and of several assaults on another man – a driver who claimed the actor grabbed his crotch so hard on one occasion that he “almost come off the road”.
Another man claimed the Hollywood actor subjected him to a “barrage” of “vile” sexual abuse before grabbing his crotch “like a cobra” at a West End event, while the fourth said the Hollywood star kissed his neck and told him to “be cool”, again before grabbing his crotch.
Spacey, best known for films including American Beauty and The Usual Suspects and for political drama series House Of Cards, vehemently denied all the allegations.
A jury cleared him of all the charges after deliberating for 12 hours and 26 minutes.
The judge, Mr Justice Wall, said jurors must have felt like they were in a “goldfish bowl” because of the level of interest in the case.
Denying the separate allegations by each of the men, Spacey told the court:
- He shared an “intimate” consensual moment with a former aspiring actor who claimed the star drugged him and performed a sex act on him while he was asleep in his flat;
- He had a “somewhat intimate” relationship with another complainant, but denied assaulting him in a “violent, aggressive, painful way” – and said it felt like he had been stabbed in the back when he learned of the claims;
- That allegations by a man he met in a West End theatre in the mid-2000s were “madness” and the incident described “never happened”;
- That he may have “made a pass” at another complainant but was “happy that he testified that the moment he told me he was not interested, I stopped”.
His defence team had labelled the prosecution’s case against him as “weak” – accusing some of the complainants of being after money.
The actor told the court he was a “flirt” and had been “open” about times he had been “promiscuous”, adding: “It doesn’t make me a bad person.”
He later told jurors he found it “harder to trust people because of who I was”, due to his fame and status.
The actor also said he felt under pressure to come out publicly as gay after allegations of sexual misconduct were first levelled at him.
After he was cleared, the Crown Prosecution Service said prosecutors “respect the decision of the court” as a crowd gathered outside.
Dozens of supporters were outside court as the man accused of fatally shooting the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare made his first appearance.
Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder following the 4 December killing of Brian Thompson, 50, outside a midtown Manhattan hotel.
The 26-year-old is accused of ambushing and shooting the executive as he walked to an investor conference.
Luigi Mangione supporters stand outside the Supreme Court. Pic: AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah
Dozens of people who showed up in court to support the suspect including former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning who was jailed for stealing classified diplomatic cables.
Dozens more queued in the hallway.
Mangione is also facing federal charges that could carry the possibility of the death penalty.
The judge set a deadline of 9 April to submit pre-trial motions.
Luigi Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson. Pic: Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP
In addition to the New York cases, Mr Mangione also faces charges of forgery, carrying firearms without a licence, and other counts in Pennsylvania, where authorities arrested him at a McDonald’s.
Police say he was in possession of a gun, bullets, multiple fake IDs and a handwritten document that expressed “ill will” towards corporate America.
He is being held in a Brooklyn jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including music mogul and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, and disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried.
The killing prompted some to voice their resentment at US health insurers, with Mangione attracting a cult following.
A poll taken in the wake of the shooting showed most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials were partly to blame for the incident.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have not “done anything” to end the Ukraine war, US President Donald Trump has said.
He called the French president a “friend of mine” and the UK leader a “nice guy” but said Russia had only agreed to negotiate “because of me”.
Mr Trump made the comments days before both leaders visit the White House for a meeting in which they must try to press Ukraine‘s case while keeping the US leader onside.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron in Paris: Pic: Number 10/Flickr
The president also continued his criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he had “no cards” to play.
“I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards. And you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I’ve had it,” he told a Fox radio show.
The comments come after he recently called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator without elections” – apparently in response to Mr Zelenskyy saying his US counterpart was living in a “disinformation space” after Mr Trump claimed Ukraine had started the war.
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US and Russia hold talks in Saudi Arabia
Ukraine was also excluded from talks between the top US and Russian diplomats in Riyadh earlier this week.
They were intended to set the stage for future negotiations on ending the war, which started when Russia launched a full-scale invasion three years ago.
Speaking on Friday evening, Mr Trump denied speculation he could visit Moscow for talks on 9 May – the day Russia celebrates its victory over the Nazis.
President Trump speaks in the Oval Office on Friday. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also told reporters the Russian and Ukrainian leaders needed to “work together” to end the war.
However, the US has already dealt a huge blow to Kyiv’s position in any future talks.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that a return to pre-war borders was “unrealistic” and ruled out NATO membership as way to guarantee Kyiv’s security.
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President Zelenskyy has insisted he will not accept any deal that his country is not involved in.
Ukraine’s leader held talks with US envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv on Thursday, describing it later as a “good discussion”.
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Mr Kellogg struck a markedly different tone to President Trump when he called Mr Zelenskyy the “courageous leader of a nation at war”.
However, there are concerns over how much influence Mr Kellogg has, with a Ukrainian source saying there was a sense he had been sidelined.
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