Three years after the abandonment of charges against him in his country, the American actor Kevin Spacey has been charged in the United Kingdom with four sexual assaults on men, during a period when he was artistic director of a London theater.
Thursday’s announcement from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the British public prosecutor’s office, gives a new echo to the accusations that have emerged since the Weinstein scandal, which have put a stop to the career of the star of the series. House of Cards.
“The CPS has authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, on four counts of sexual assault against three men,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS’s Special Crimes Division, said in a statement.
“He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without their consent,” she added, adding that these charges “follow a review of evidence collected by the Metropolitan Police in his investigation.
The alleged facts cover a period from March 2005 to April 2013.
Two indictments relate to acts of sexual assault in March 2005 in London on the same plaintiff. Another sexual assault involves a second complainant in August 2008, who also accuses him of forcing him into penetrative sexual activity without his consent.
Finally, Kevin Spacey is charged with a fourth sexual assault on a third complainant in April 2013, in Gloucestershire (southwest of England).
“Alleged inappropriate behavior”
London police said the complainants, whose names have not been made public, are now in their 30s and 40s.
Scotland Yard had opened an investigation after receiving complaints against the actor for sexual assaults, some of which were allegedly committed in the Lambeth district of London, where the Old Vic theater is located, of which he was artistic director between 2004 and 2015 .
These accusations were made in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, named after the American film producer targeted by numerous accusations of harassment and sexual assault, revealed in the fall of 2017 by the New York Times and the New Yorker.
The Old Vic theater then commissioned an internal investigation, conducted by a law firm, into the behavior of its former artistic director. In total, “20 personal testimonies of alleged inappropriate behavior by Kevin Spacey” had been collected.
Already a wave of accusations
The actor has also been the subject of investigations in the United States.
Most of the charges brought against him in the United States and England relate to men, often young, or even teenagers, at the time of the events.
In the United States, the actor was charged with indecent assault and sexual assault in the state of Massachusetts (east coast), but the charges were dropped in July 2019. He was accused of having, in July 2016, got his hands on the penis of an 18-year-old young man employed in a bar, after having made him drink.
This wave of accusations has had serious consequences on the career and reputation of the American actor twice Oscar winner (for American Beauty and The Usual Suspects).
He had been landed by Netflix from the series House of Cardsin which he played the main character.
Mr. Spacey was also replaced by Canadian actor Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s detective film All the money in the world.
In November 2021, the actor was ordered to pay $31 million to the company that produced the series House of Cards.
MRC, the company behind this hit series about political intrigue in Washington, was seeking damages for lost earnings attributed to the actor’s exit from this series after accusations against him of harassment and of sexual abuse.
The British public prosecutor’s office reminded Thursday “all those concerned that the criminal proceedings against Mr. Spacey are active and that he is entitled to a fair trial. »