(LONDON) It was more than a coincidence that three of Kevin Spacey’s four accusers described similar incidents in which he allegedly grabbed their crotch, a prosecutor argued Wednesday in her closing argument at the actor’s assault trial. sexual.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew told a London jury that Spacey ‘seized opportunities’ in brief moments and was able to get away with it for years because he was a celebrity.
The double Oscar winner had long enjoyed a “trinity of protection”, knowing that the men he attacked would not complain. If they did, he knew they would not be believed; if believed, he knew authorities would not act because of his status, the prosecutor said.
That started to change after allegations were raised in 2017 at the height of the #metoo movement, when an American actor accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior decades earlier. Further allegations followed and eventually led the four men, who did not know each other, to independently complain to the English police.
“Are they all motivated by ‘money, money, money’ as the defendant told you rather dramatically? asked the prosecutor, citing an excerpt from Spacey’s testimony.
“Or are they all fed up with the secret of truth they have been carrying for many years? They are no longer ready to be the secret guardian of someone who has treated them so badly,” she said.
Spacey, 63, pleaded not guilty to nine counts, including several counts of sexual and indecent assault and one count of inciting a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. He originally faced 13 charges, but the judge on Wednesday withdrew four charges that replicated the same allegations under an older law.
The actor testified for two days and denied sexually assaulting three men. He said he had consensual encounters with two and played down the claims of a third man, describing his gesture as an “awkward pass”. He said allegations that he made insensitive racial remarks to a fourth man and violently grabbed his private parts like a cobra were “pure fantasy”.
The alleged acts between 2001 and 2013 ranged from unwanted touching to aggressively grabbing the crotch and, in one case, performing an oral sex act on an unconscious man.
The defense questioned the accusers’ versions and suggested they were motivated by money. Two of the men filed lawsuits against Spacey and a third man contacted Spacey’s website to try to settle the criminal case.
Spacey presented photos that one of the men had posted on social media of the two of them and a photo that the man had sent him from a mountain hike he had taken, where he claimed to have read a soliloquy of Shakespeare at Spacey’s suggestion from atop a peak.
Other defense witnesses said Spacey would have had little or no opportunity to assault a man backstage at a charity event, as claimed by the alleged victim.