Kevin Spacey to appear in court on charge of assaulting 18-year-old
Written by News on 07/01/2019
Kevin Spacey is expected to enter a not guilty plea when he appears in court later on an indecent assault charge.
The Oscar-winning US actor is accused of assaulting an 18-year-old man in a bar on the resort island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts.
The incident is alleged to have happened in 2016 but was only reported to police after the actor was publicly accused of similar assaults dating back three decades.
Court documents allege Spacey unzipped the man’s trousers and molested him.
The teenager had been working in the bar, but because he was too young to drink alcohol, he told the actor he was 23.
Defence lawyers are expected to use this to cast doubt on his honesty.
The actor Anthony Rapp was the first to accuse Spacey of making a sexual advance – and alleged the incident happened in 1986, when he was 14 and Spacey was 26.
His allegations led to other men coming forward.
The Old Vic in London, where Spacey was artistic director, issued a statement in November 2017 saying there had been 20 allegations against him, but none of them were made while he worked there.
The Metropolitan Police is investigating six allegations of assault in London and Gloucester from 1996 to 2013, but will not publicly confirm that Spacey is the suspect or whether they have made any attempt to interview him.
The scandal led to Spacey being written out of the final series of House Of Cards, and his scenes in the movie All The Money In The World were re-shot, with Christopher Plummer replacing him.
Spacey vanished from public view until Christmas Eve, when he released a video reprising his House Of Cards role as President Frank Underwood.
He condemned those who rushed to judgement, while making no direct comment on the indecent assault charge.
(c) Sky News 2019: Kevin Spacey to appear in court on charge of assaulting 18-year-old
