Kevin Spacey called ‘a sexual bully’ at start of UK trial

Kevin Spacey is a “sexual bully” who gets turned on by humiliating younger men and “aggressively” grabbing them in the crotch, a UK prosecutor told the Hollywood star’s sex-assault trial Friday.

The 63-year-old two-time Academy Award winner was all smiles again as he arrived at London’s Southwark Crown Court Friday to face a dozen charges of sex attacks against four younger men from 2001 and 2013.

Prosecutor Christine Agnew started her opening statement by calling the actor “predatory” and “a man who sexually assaults other men.”

“A man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable – a sexual bully,” Agnew said.

“His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.”


Kevin Spacey smiling as he arrives at his London trial on Friday.
Spacey was all smiles as he arrived moments before he was called a crotch-grabbing “sexual bully.”
REUTERS

The star has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which include sexual assault, indecent assault, and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

They include seven counts against one alleged victim and five counts against three others, all men who were in their 20s or 30s at the time when Spacey was the artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theatre.


General view of London's Old Vic Theatre.
The allegations all stem from when the award-winning star was the artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theatre.
PA Images via Getty Images

The four accusers did not know each other — but all “had the misfortune to attract” his attention, the prosecutor told the jurors, warning them off getting “a little star-struck.”

Spacey had repeatedly grabbed and groped the victims or forced their hand onto his own genitalia — and performed oral sex on one while he was asleep, Agnew alleged.

When one man told him he must never touch him again after Spacey grabbed his crotch very hard, the actor “simply laughed and commented that his getting angry simply turned him on,” Agnew said.


Courtroom sketch of Kevin Spacey and Justice Mark Wall.
Spacey listened as he was accused of laughing and saying he got turned on during one alleged attack.
AP

The charges allege the acts were not consensual and Spacey did not “reasonably believe” the men had consented.

Spacey’s attorney, Patrick Gibbs, told the court that the actor plans to give evidence to help “put all the rumors and conjecture to bed.”

“Each of these allegations of non-consensual sexual conduct is completely denied,” Gibbs told the court.

“You will hear some truths, you will hear some half-truths, you will also hear … some deliberate exaggerations and some many damned lies.”

“What has been reimagined with a sinister spin?” Gibbs asked. “What has been made up or twisted?”

The actor — identified in court by his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler — is free on bail and arrived in a London black cab.


Spacey stepping out of his cab outside his London trial on Friday.
Spacey is free on bail and arrived in court in a London taxi.
REUTERS

He could face jail if convicted — but hopes for a career comeback if acquitted.

“There are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” Spacey told Germany’s Zeit magazine this month.

The trial is expected to last four weeks.

With Post wires