(LONDON) British prosecutors closed their case on Wednesday in the sexual assault case against Kevin Spacey, after four men testified that the Oscar-winning actor had attacked them in the past.
Prosecutors read to jurors statements Spacey gave to investigators, in which he denied aggressively grabbing three men, and performing a nonconsensual sex act against a fourth.
The defense is due to start making their case at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday. The stakes are high as Spacey faces jail time if convicted.
The 63-year-old American actor has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts, including counts of sexual and indecent assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without his consent.
The allegations date from 2001 to 2013, when Spacey worked at the Old Vic theatre.
None of the alleged victims knew each other, but each testified that they turned themselves in to police when Spacey was charged with sexual misconduct in the United States in 2017, as the #metoo movement gained momentum.
The charges at the time crippled Spacey’s once stellar career. He won an Oscar for his supporting role in Convenience suspects in 1995, and the Oscar for best actor for his performance in American beauty in 1999. When the allegations surfaced, he was notably fired from the television series House of Cards.
Spacey denied doing anything non-consensual and said he did not recall meeting two of the men.
He told police last year that the fourth man to come forward had ‘reinvented’ their time together and concocted false allegations.
Defense attorney Patrick Gibbs suggested the men were motivated by money. Several of them filed lawsuits against the star and one of them testified that an American lawyer had told him that he could earn him 10 million US.
Spacey, who has homes in London and the United States, is on parole.