American actor Kevin Spacey appeared in an English court on Wednesday, at the beginning of a the long-awaited trial for twelve sexual assaults on four men between 2001 and 2013, which he “vehemently” denies.

Winner of two Oscars, for American beauty (1999) and the usual suspects (1995), arrived at Southwark Crown Court, in south London, more than two hours before the start of the first hearing.

Dressed in a dark suit, blue shirt and pink tie, Spacey (63) got out of the taxi accompanied by two people from his team and casually greeted the many journalists who were waiting for him at the door of the court. In the courtyard, it took its place in a glass case at the back of the room.

The trial will last four weeks, and the first hearing was devoted to procedural issues. The prosecution will begin presenting its case against Spacey on Friday, after preliminary arguments are settled and a jury is selected.

“Defend your innocence”

Hollywood star In November, British prosecutors charged her with seven sexual assaults between 2001 and 2004., to a man whom, among other things, he would force “to participate in a sexual relationship without consent”. These charges were added to his already heavy record before the English judiciary, which in May 2022 accused of five sexual assaults on three men between 2005 and 2013, when he was director of the prestigious Old Vic theater in London.

None of the alleged victims can be identified under English law. In one of several preliminary hearings held before the trial began, his lawyer, Patrick Gibbs, assured that “Spacey strongly denies any wrongdoing in this case” and hopes that he will be able to “defend his innocence”.

Given his cooperation with British judicial authorities, the actor was released without caution, allowing him to continue working, although his career was severely affected by these charges and other charges previously brought in the United States of which he was acquitted. . In January, in the Italian city of Turin, he received the award La Estrella de la Mole Antonelliana, a public institution that includes the National Museum of Cinematography, “as a sign of recognition” for his “aesthetic and authorial contribution to the development of dramatic art.”

“My life is moving forward. I never hid, never lived in a cave. I went to restaurants, I saw friends, I met people who defended and supported me,” he told the Italian media at the time.

#MeToo movement

Spacey was one of the big stars involved in the global #MeToo movement, it emerged in 2017 from the case of the all-powerful American film producer Harvey Weinstein. He has been accused of sexual assault by several young men in the United States and this wave of accusations destroyed his successful career. He always denied the accusations, but this led him to come out as gay.

As a result of the allegations, got fired from the hit Netflix series Tower of cards, in which he played the main character, Machiavellian American President Frank Underwood. It was also left out of Ridley Scott’s film, all the money in the worldin which he was replaced by Canadian actor Christopher Plummer.

Last October, a New York court acquitted him in a civil case for sexually touching actor Anthony Rapp during a Manhattan dinner in 1986.

In October 2020, he was ordered to pay nearly $31 million to MRC, the company that manufactures it Tower of cards, as compensation for the loss of income attributed to his departure from the series. A judge in Los Angeles upheld this charge last August.