Actor Kevin Spacey defended himself in court Thursday as part of his criminal trial over allegations of sexual assault, saying he was “crushed” by the accusations against him and he didn’t attend an event where one of the alleged assaults took place as the House of Cards actor faces a potential prison sentence if convicted.
Actor Kevin Spacey, left, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London on June 30.
Spacey testified Thursday at the trial, which is taking place in London and has already been going on for two weeks, with the prosecution resting their case on Wednesday.
The actor faces allegations from four men who accuse Spacey of sexually assaulting them between 2001 and 2013, including unwanted touching and crotch-grabbing, with one man alleging he woke up in Spacey’s apartment—after being potentially drugged—to find the actor performing oral sex on him.
Spacey testified he felt that a man who accused him of multiple instances of sexual assault had “stabbed me in the back” and while him and his accuser had a “very fun time together,” none of his touching was “violent” and “aggressive” or non-consensual, Sky News reports.
The first accuser said he was assaulted by Spacey on the way to Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara Ball in the mid-2000s, but Spacey testified that he did not attend the event and was in Australia at the time, according to the BBC.
Spacey’s testimony is expected to continue throughout the day on Thursday.
Spacey’s trial is expected to last for approximately two more weeks, and jurors will decide whether to convict the actor of 12 charges against him, for sexual assault, indecent assault, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. Spacey could go to prison if convicted, and the charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent is punishable by up to a life sentence.
Spacey was first accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, as the #MeToo movement gained steam, and the four allegations against him are part of a broader array of accusations against the actor from men in both the U.S. and U.K. His trial in London The actor was written out of House of Cards’ final television season and replaced in other film projects as a result of the allegations against him, and he was forced to pay nearly $31 million to MRC, the studio that produced House of Cards, for breach of contract. The London criminal trial against Spacey comes after a jury found Spacey not liable for battery in a separate civil trial in the U.S., ruling in his favor in October after Rent actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making unwanted sexual advances when Rapp was 14 years old. Prosecutors in Massachusetts also dropped a sexual assault charge against Spacey in 2019, based on an allegation of the actor inappropriately touching a man at a restaurant in Nantucket.
If Spacey is acquitted of the charges against him, the actor has said he intends to return to acting. The actor told German publication ZEITmagazin in June he “know[s] that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London.” “The second that happens, they're ready to move forward,” Spacey said.