Actor Kevin Spacey arrives at the Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Thursday. He was released on bail after being charged with sex crimes against three men.
David Cliff/AP
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David Cliff/AP
Actor Kevin Spacey arrives at the Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Thursday. He was released on bail after being charged with sex crimes against three men.
David Cliff/AP
LONDON — Kevin Spacey strongly denies sexual assault allegations, his lawyer said Thursday, as the Oscar-winning actor appeared in a London court to face five criminal charges against three men.
Photographers and television camera crews crowded Spacey, 62, as he arrived at London's Westminster Magistrates Court for the preliminary hearing.
Spacey sat in the glass-fronted dock during the half-hour hearing and stood to give his full name – Kevin Spacey Fowler – as well as his date of birth and a London address.
He was not asked to enter a formal plea, but his attorney, Patrick Gibbs, said, “Mr. Spacey vehemently denies any criminality in this case.”
Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram granted Spacey unconditional bail until his next appearance, a plea hearing scheduled for July 14.
The former House of cards star is charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of soliciting penetrative sexual activity without a person's consent.
The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in the West of England in April 2013. The victims are now aged between 30 and 40.
In a statement released last month, Spacey said he would travel to Britain to face charges and that he was confident he would “prove my innocence.”
Spacey was questioned by British police in 2019 about claims by several men that he had assaulted them. The two-time Academy Award winner led London's Old Vic theater between 2004 and 2015.
Spacey won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1995 film The usual suspects and a leading actor Oscar for the 1999 film American beauty.
But his celebrated career came to an abrupt halt in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp accused the star of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s, when Rapp was still a teenager. Spacey denies the accusations.
