Kevin Spacey tells jury of ‘romantic’ touching and consensual sex act – denying sexual assault claims
Kevin Spacey has told his trial he was “flirtatious” and “romantic” with one of his alleged sexual assault victims, and that he had a consensual sexual encounter with another – but has denied accusations of “aggressive” sexual offences.
After hearing several days of evidence from his four accusers and other prosecution witnesses, Spacey entered the witness box at Southwark Crown Court in London on Thursday to have his say for the first time.
At the end of the day, the Hollywood actor described the impact of sexual abuse allegations against him first being made public in the US in 2017, saying his “world exploded” as there was a “rush to judgement”, and that he lost “everything in a matter of days”.
He became emotional, fighting back tears, as he addressed a statement he released in response – in which he also came out as gay publicly for the first time – saying he was “under a lot of pressure” to say something and hoped this would be a “positive” in the wake of the “terrible accusation”.
Read the latest developments from court
The 63-year-old, who is best known for films including The Usual Suspects and American Beauty, as well as political drama House Of Cards, has pleaded not guilty to sexual offence charges relating to four men, which are alleged to have happened in the UK between 2001 and 2013.
Giving evidence, Spacey told jurors he was a “big flirt” – and said when he learned the first complainant had made claims against him, he felt “crushed” that he would “stab me in the back”.
Addressing a separate allegation by another alleged victim, Spacey denied drugging him and said they had a “lovely evening” and a consensual sexual encounter, before the man became “awkward” and “hurriedly” left his flat in London.
First complainant was ‘funny and charming and flirtatious’ – Spacey
The first alleged victim, a driver, has accused the star of sexually assaulting him several times during the early 2000s – including one occasion when he claims Spacey grabbed him “so hard I almost came off the road”.
This “never happened”, Spacey told the court – adding: “I was not on a suicide mission.”
Describing their encounters, the actor said he touched the complainant in “romantic” ways and that they had “a very fun time” together. “He was a lads’ lad,” the star told the court. “He was funny and charming and flirtatious.”
Jurors heard that Spacey and the alleged victim did not have sex because the man “made it clear that he did not want to go any further… and you just respect how far someone wants to go”.
Answering questions from his defence barrister Patrick Gibbs, the star accepted touching the complainant but said: “It did not happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way. It was gentle… and it was in my mind romantic.”
Asked by Mr Gibbs if there was any reluctance from the alleged victim to his advances, Spacey said: “No. The only thing he made clear is he did not want to go any further than we were going and I respected that.”
The man said things such as “this is new for me”, Spacey told the court, “so I think that he may have been surprised by his reaction”.
‘We had a consensual… very nice and lovely evening’
Responding to allegations made by a former aspiring actor – which have led to the most serious charge, of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity – Spacey said he believed they shared an “intimate moment”.
Earlier in the trial, the complainant accused Spacey of drugging him and said he woke to find the actor performing a sex act on him.
“We had had a sexual encounter after which I had gone to the bathroom and I came back from the bathroom and it was like… something had changed,” Spacey told the court.
“The person that I had this intimate moment with was suddenly awkward and fumbling… and I don’t want to say ran out… but hurriedly left. And it felt very odd.”
The man’s behaviour “concerned” him, the actor told the court. He said he rang him after he left to check he was okay.
Spacey denied drugging the man and performing a sex act on him while he was asleep, saying this allegation “makes no sense”.
He told the court. “We had a consensual and, I believe, a very nice and lovely evening. If he regretted it immediately I don’t know, I can’t speak for him, but something was weird – it was strange.”
West End event assault claim ‘madness’
Allegations made by a man who claims Spacey assaulted him during an event at a West End theatre in the mid-2000s were also put to the actor – who described them as “madness”.
The alleged victim has accused the actor of subjecting him to a “barrage of vile” and “hardcore” comments before grabbing his crotch “like a cobra” striking.
“I never said any of the things that he claims I said to him, and wouldn’t – and never have to anyone in my life,” Spacey told the court.
“It never happened,” he said of the alleged incident, and told jurors he did not recognise the man “at all”.
Spacey also told the court that he “primarily” has no issue with the allegation made by a man who claims the actor kissed his neck and grabbed his crotch at a property he was staying at in the Cotswolds in the early 2010s.
The actor told jurors he did not remember doing this but accepts that he might have done. “We all had some drinks…I made a pass and I’m only happy that he testified that the moment he told me he was not interested, I stopped,” he told the court.
Spacey addresses coming out statement in 2017
Towards the end of his evidence, Spacey told jurors he had been looking to come out as gay for two years before he did – in a statement released in response to an allegation of an unwanted sexual advance made by actor Anthony Rapp in the US.
He acknowledged this statement “upset” members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I was under a lot of pressure that I had to say something… if I didn’t it was going to be a nightmare, a PR nightmare,” he told the court.
“Members of the LGBTQ+ community were upset because I came out while I was responding to an accusation… now I understand why it was read that way but I hadn’t put those two things together.”
Spacey continued: “I thought in the face of this terrible accusation maybe I can do something at least positive. The gay community had been pressuring me for a very long time about coming out.”
The allegations made by actor Anthony Rapp against Spacey were found not proven in October 2022.
“Maybe now that the allegation against Mr Anthony Rapp has been proven to be false, maybe people will read [the statement] with a little bit more understanding now,” Spacey said.
The actor is appearing in court under his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler, and has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault and indecent assault, one charge of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity, in relation to the four men.
The trial continues.
Video footage has shown the moment singer and actress Ariana Grande was accosted by a fan at a film premiere.
Ms Grande was in Singapore for the debut of Wicked: For Good when the incident unfolded on Thursday.
The video captured the moment the fan scaled the barricade and pushed past photographers towards Ms Grande.
Pic: tacotrvck_vb/X/via REUTERS
He then threw his arms around her, before co-star Cynthia Erivo intervened and security swoops in to stop him.
The man, now identified as Johnson Wen, 26, is reportedly a notorious red carpet crasher.
Wen, who has since been charged with being a public nuisance, goes by the nickname Pyjama Man, and gloated as he shared footage of the intrusion online.
“Dear Ariana Grande, Thank You for letting me Jump on the Yellow Carpet with You,” he wrote on Instagram.
Pic: tacotrvck_vb/X/via REUTERS
In video stories posted to the site beforehand, he was seen at the Universal Studios venue, revealing his intentions.
In one, he said: “I feel like I’m in a dream, that’s my best friend, Ariana Grande, and I’m gonna meet her. I’ve been dreaming about that.”
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The Australian has ambushed several performers on stage, according to reports, including Katy Perry and The Chainsmokers at concerts in Sydney, and The Weeknd in Melbourne.
It has been reported that Wen intends to plead guilty and that he could face a fine of more than £1,000.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo at the London premiere for Wicked: For Good
Ms Grande took a moment to gather herself in the aftermath of the intrusion, visibly shocked by the incident.
She didn’t address the incident on her own Instagram, but shared some photos with the caption “thank you, Singapore”, adding “we love you”.
The singer battled post-traumatic stress disorder after her 2017 concert in Manchester was bombed, leaving 22 people dead.
She told Vogue in 2018: “It’s hard to talk about because so many people have suffered such severe, tremendous loss. But, yeah, it’s a real thing.
“I know those families and my fans, and everyone there experienced a tremendous amount of it as well. Time is the biggest thing.
“I feel like I shouldn’t even be talking about my own experience – like I shouldn’t even say anything. I don’t think I’ll ever know how to talk about it and not cry.”
In the same interview she also addressed her own anxiety, saying she has “always” had it.
Ms Grande plays Galinda Upland in Wicked: For Good, the character who becomes Glinda the Good Witch. Ms Erivo plays Elphaba, the character who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
The film is released in UK cinemas on 21 November.
Entertainment
A third of daily music uploads are AI-generated and 97% of people can’t tell the difference, says report
Do you care if the music you’re listening to is artificially generated?
That question – once the realm of science fiction – is becoming increasingly urgent.
An AI-generated country track, Walk My Walk, is currently sitting at number one on the US Billboard chart of digital sales and a new report by streaming platform Deezer has revealed the sheer scale of AI production in the music industry.
Deezer’s AI-detection system found that around 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks are now uploaded every day, accounting for 34% of all daily uploads.
File pic: iStock
The true number is most likely higher, as Deezer’s AI-detection system does not catch every AI-generated track. Nor does this figure include partially AI-generated tracks.
In January 2025, Deezer’s system identified 10% of uploaded tracks as fully AI-generated.
Since then, the proportion of AI tracks – made using written prompts such as “country, 1990s style, male singer” – has more than tripled, leading the platform’s chief executive, Alexis Lanternier, to say that AI music is “flooding music streaming”.
‘Siphoning money from royalty pool’
What’s more, when Deezer surveyed 9,000 people in eight countries – the US, Canada, Brazil, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany and Japan – and asked them to detect whether three tracks were real or AI, 97% could not tell the difference.
That’s despite the fact that the motivation behind the surge of AI music is not in the least bit creative, according to Deezer. The company says that roughly 70% of fully AI-generated tracks are what it calls “fraudulent” – that is, designed purely to make money.
“The common denominator is the ambition to boost streams on specific tracks in order to siphon money from the royalty pool,” a Deezer spokesperson told Sky News.
“With AI-generated content, you can easily create massive amounts of tracks that can be used for this purpose.”
File pic: Reuters
The tracks themselves are not actually fraudulent, Deezer says, but the behaviour around them is. Someone will upload an AI track then use an automated system – a bot – to listen to a song over and over again to make royalties from it.
Even though the total number of streams for each individual track is very low – Deezer estimates that together they account for 0.5% of all streams – the work needed to make an AI track is so tiny that the rewards justify the effort.
Are fully-AI tracks being removed?
Deezer is investing in AI-detection software and has filed two patents for systems that spot AI music. But it is not taking down the tracks it marks as fully-AI.
Instead it removes them from algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists, a measure designed to stop the tracks getting streams and therefore generating royalties, and marks the tracks as “AI-generated content”.
“If people want to listen to an AI-generated track however, they can and we are not stopping them from doing so – we just want to make sure they are making a conscious decision,” the Deezer spokesperson says.
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Deezer’s survey found that more than half (52%) of respondents felt uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference between AI and human-made music.
“The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human-made tracks or not,” said the company’s boss Alexis Lanternier.
“There’s also no doubt that there are concerns about how AI-generated music will affect the livelihood of artists.”
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Musicians protests AI copyright plans
Earlier this year, more than 1,000 musicians – including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush – released a silent album to protest plans by the UK government to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission.
A recent study commissioned by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers suggested that generative AI music could be worth £146bn a year in 2028 and account for around 60% of music libraries’ revenues.
By this metric, the authors concluded, 25% of creators’ revenues are at risk by 2028, a sum of £3.5bn.
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