Kevin Spacey denied that groping is his “trademark” pickup move during his second day of testimony in his criminal sexual assault trial taking place in London.
The two-time Oscar winner stuck to his testimony from a day earlier in which he insisted he never sexually assaulted three of the four accusers who described encounters between 2001 and 2013. The acts allegedly escalated from unwanted touching to aggressive fondling to one instance of performing an oral sex act on an unconscious man.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
Kevin Spacey arrives for his sexual assault trial on Friday. The actor took the stand to testify for a second day. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The actor claimed one victim’s alleged encounter was “pure fantasy” while maintaining two others were consensual. The fourth allegation he seemingly accepted, explaining that he made a “clumsy pass” after drinking heavily one night.
The former “House of Cards” star first took the stand Thursday, where he denied violently groping one of his accusers and instead painted a picture of their “intimate” and “somewhat sexual” relationship for the jury. “I never thought that (the man) I knew would… 20 years later stab me in the back,” he said.
Spacey’s description of gentle stroking was in direct contradiction to what the alleged victims testified. They said he caught them by surprise when he aggressively grabbed their privates through their clothing.
“It wasn’t like a caress,” one man testified. “It was like a cobra coming out and getting hold.” Spacey called the allegation “madness” during Thursday’s testimony.
A court sketch from Kevin Spacey’s first day of testimony. (Getty Images)
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Kevin Spacey, left, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London on Friday. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Prosecutors labeled Spacey as a “sexual bully” during opening statements on June 30.
Spacey is “a man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable — a sexual bully,” prosecutor Christine Agnew said. “His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.”
Kevin Spacey arrives at the courthouse on Thursday. (Getty Images)
Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs said Spacey denied all allegations of nonconsensual activity and told jurors to ask themselves as they listened to the evidence what — if anything — had occurred when he was with the men. He suggested the alleged victims had other motives and that Spacey had left himself open to opportunists when he came out as gay in 2020.
Spacey first faced allegations of sexual misconduct when actor Anthony Rapp came forward in 2017. Rapp accused Spacey of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s. Spacey was found not liable in Rapp’s civil case against him.
Following Rapp’s claim, more men came forward with accusations against Spacey, and he was booted from the Netflix show “House of Cards.”
Kevin Spacey leaves after testifying on Thursday. He has been accused of violently groping four different men. (Getty Images)
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Spacey returned to the screen with roles in Italian director Franco Nero’s “The Man Who Drew God,” the biopic “Once Upon a Time in Croatia” and the film “Peter Five Eight.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
