Actor Kevin Spacey is due in UK court to answer sexual assault charges


Spacey is charged with five offences: four counts of sexual assault, and another charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. Prosecutors claim Spacey forced a man to perform oral sex.

Police said the alleged assaults took place between March 2005 and April 2013 – four in the UK capital and one in Gloucestershire, west England. They involved a man who is now in his 40s and two men who are now in their 30s.

The first hearing in his case will take place at Westminster Magistrates Court in London.

“We expect him to appear in person,” a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Spacey, once one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, has largely disappeared from public view since being accused of sexual misconduct five years ago.

The 62-year-old, who won Best Actor in ‘American Beauty’ and Best Supporting Actor in ‘The Usual Suspects’, has previously denied all misconduct charges.

He was cut from the television series ‘House of Cards’ and removed from the film ‘All the Money in the World’ after accusations of sexual misconduct came to light.

The serious nature of the charge involving oral sex means that the case will have to be sent to a higher court for trial.

If convicted of sexual assault, he faces a six-month prison sentence or an unlimited fine, but the other offense carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Spacey has previously lived in Britain. He was the artistic director of London’s menace Old Vic between 2004 and 2015.



Source link -88