Actor Kevin Spacey says he never groped victims, British court hears

LONDON – Actor Kevin Spacey told British police he had never groped anyone, but had numerous one-night stands with people from the theatre world and might have made some clumsy passes at people, a London court heard on Wednesday.

The Oscar winner is on trial at Southwark Crown Court, where he denies a dozen charges of historic sex offences against four men, then aged in their 20s and 30s, committed in Britain between 2001 and 2013.

The accusers have said the 63-year-old had aggressively groped them or in one case performed a sex act while the complainant was passed out, with the prosecution

describing him as a sexual bully.

On Wednesday, the prosecution read statements to the jury that Spacey had provided to detectives during five interviews in New York and London when the separate accusations were put to him.

In these, the American actor said he had no recollection of the man who accused him of making crude sexual comments to him before grabbing his crotch through his trousers while at a charity event at a London theatre.

“I certainly did not grab anyone’s (private parts), let alone with force,” he said in his statement. He said the man had approached his lawyers seeking damages over the alleged incident.

Spacey likewise said he could not remember the second accuser, an aspiring actor, who says he woke in the actor’s London apartment to find he was being assaulted.

“I’m certain that I did not attempt to perform (a sex act) on anyone who fell asleep in my apartment,” Spacey’s statement said, adding he had never performed the sex act on anyone who had not consented.

In his statement, he did say he had consensual sex with some aspiring actors, and that he had hosted many social gatherings in his apartment which vast numbers of people would have attended.

Spacey said he had “numerous consensual one-night stands with members of the theatre world in my property”, and could not rule out that the man had been there and there had been sexual contact. His statement also said the man’s lawyers had contacted him seeking a payment of more than £450,000 (S$778,000).

As for the third alleged victim, a man he met in a pub near Oxford in central England who says the actor assaulted him later at the nearby property where the actor was staying, Spacey said it was “entirely possible and indeed likely” he might have made a clumsy pass at someone at some time.

“I have certainly never attempted to grab anyone’s crotch while making a pass,” he said, but said he might have touched someone if he thought they were consenting.

Spacey told police he was “baffled and deeply hurt” that the final accuser, a driver who says Spacey groped him about 12 times, had made his claims.

He suggested it was either to seek financial gain in the light of the other allegations or because the man was embarrassed to admit the truth and was “reimagining” their time together.

Spacey, who denies charges of indecent and sexual assault, and a more serious offence of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, is expected to give evidence in person when the defence begins its case on Thursday. REUTERS