Kevin Spacey Found Not Guilty on 9 Sexual Misconduct Charges
Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.
A London jury has decided Kevin Spacey's fate in his sexual assault case.
On July 26, the House of Cards alum was found not guilty on nine charges including seven counts of sexual assault, one count of forcing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of forcing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
Spacey's charges, which he had previously pleaded not guilty to, were in relation to allegations spanning from 2004 to 2013, involving four men in the United Kingdom. At the time, the Baby Driver star held the position of artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London.
Spacey was originally charged with 12 counts of sexual misconduct, but the number of counts was reduced last week due to a technicality in the case, according to Variety.
After the verdict, Spacey addressed reporters outside of the courtroom.
"I imagine that many of you can understand that there's a lot for me to process after what just happened today," he said in a video obtained by NBC News. "I would like to say that I'm enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision, and I am humbled by the outcome today."
During the trial, according to the outlet, prosecutor Christine Agnew called the American Beauty star a "sexual bully," accusing him of aggressively grabbing men by the crotch and "making others feel powerless and uncomfortable.
"Spacey himself denied the allegations when he took the stand in mid-July, stating in part, "If I am interested in somebody the first thing I want them to do is feel comfortable."
This isn't the first bout of legal trouble the Heartburn actor has faced. In 2017, Netflix severed ties with the actor amid allegations of sexual assault and misconduct surfacing against him.
The following year, the Oscar winner was hit with a felony charge of indecent assault and battery in Massachusetts, to which he pleaded not guilty. The charge was later dropped due to the "unavailability of the complaining witness," according to court documents obtained by E! News at the time.
In addition to facing criminal proceedings, he was also hit with a lawsuit from Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp, who filed a $40 million lawsuit alleging Spacey sexually assaulted him in 1986 when the Rent star was 14 years old. A New York jury found Spacey not liable for battery in October 2022.
(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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