Aspiring actor ‘woke to find Kevin Spacey performing sex act on him’

Entertainment

An aspiring actor was left “massively in shock” when he woke to find Kevin Spacey performing a sex act on him after being invited into the Hollywood star’s London flat, a court has heard.

The man – the last of four complainants to give evidence against the double-Oscar winner during a trial at Southwark Crown Court in London – became emotional as he recalled the alleged offence in a police interview played to jurors.

He told the police officer he wrote to Spacey asking for mentorship and was “dumbstruck” to receive a call from the star a few weeks later suggesting they meet later that evening.

He had been told the American Beauty actor liked “young, straight men” but did not know at this point that “he was a predator”, the court heard.

Read more: The latest developments from court

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of actor Kevin Spacey appearing at Southwark Crown Court, London, charged with three counts of indecent assault, seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent between 2001 and 2005. Picture date: Friday June 30, 2023.
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A court sketch of Spacey in the dock. Pic: PA/Elizabeth Cook

In his police interview, the man – who cannot be named for legal reasons – said the Hollywood star made him feel “weirdly special” by asking him to meet for a beer. The alleged victim was “starstruck” and did not question his intentions, the court heard.

Spacey, 63, denies all the allegations made against him.

Giving details of the night of the alleged sexual offence, the complainant said he met Spacey in London at about 11pm and that they walked for about 10 minutes before the actor invited him into his flat.

The man told the officer he drank a couple of beers and smoked part of a joint with Spacey. At some point, the House Of Cards star went to hug the man as they sat on the sofa in the living room area, and then rubbed his face into the complainant’s crotch, jurors heard.

The alleged victim said he remembered looking at the “bald patch” on the back of Spacey’s head and thinking what was happening was “one of the strangest moments of my life” – and something he would “never forget”.

Alleged victim ‘conked out’

The man told police he was “very nervous” and felt “vulnerable” during the alleged incident but he did not leave at this point.

He questioned his own behaviour, whether he was being a “d***head” and if this was just how some people behaved in the “theatre world”, jurors heard from his police interview.

He also did not want to “annoy” Spacey, the court heard.

“You just don’t want to annoy someone who is that powerful in the business you are trying to break in to,” the man told the police officer. “The social sway he had was massive.”

After about an hour at the flat, things started to become “hazy” and he “conked out”, the man told the officer, saying this was “unusual” – although he added that he did not want to “insinuate” reasons why this happened.

When he woke a few hours later, Spacey was kneeling on the floor, performing a sex act on him, it was alleged.

“Going to sleep isn’t something I would normally do – it is unusual in my behaviour just to conk out,” the complainant told the officer.

“I remember four to five hours later waking up – my belt was still together but my button and my zip were down and he’s just performed [a sex act] on me.”

Spacey ‘incredibly dismissive’

The alleged victim said he told Spacey “no” and “pushed” him off.

“My belt was still together but the rest of it was undone,” he told the officer about his trousers. He was “massively in shock”, the court heard.

The man told police Spacey then said it was “best” that he left and told him not to tell anyone.

Becoming emotional in his police interview, the man said he did not know how long the alleged sex offence went on for or whether “something happened” while he was asleep.

Spacey was “incredibly dismissive” afterwards, he added.

The complainant said he “completely buried” the alleged incident afterwards. Asked by the officer whether he thought about reporting it to police before he eventually did, he said he feared this could have affected his acting career, and that he might have been “slammed” by a “hotshot” lawyer of Spacey’s.

“It’s David and Goliath,” he told the police officer.

The man added that while “your gut tells you” that you are not “unique”, that there might have been others, he did not have the “confidence” to come forward.

The alleged victim said he eventually found the confidence to report the incident when allegations were first made about the now disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017.

‘Nothing happened that was consensual’

Under cross-examination from Spacey’s lawyer Patrick Gibbs in court, the complainant answered questions from behind a screen.

Asked about phone calls on the night of the alleged sexual offence, the man agreed that a phone call shortly after 6pm was the first time Spacey rang him, while a second at about 11.16pm was the star ringing at the time they met up.

He denies another call after midnight, lasting 19 seconds, was Spacey calling him after he left the flat – earlier than his account of how long he was there on the night.

Mr Gibbs put it to the alleged victim that he had “upped and left” without any proper explanation after “intimate contact” between the pair.

The man denied this. “Nothing happened that was consensual”, he said in court.

Spacey pleaded not guilty in July 2022 to four charges of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

In January this year, he pleaded not guilty to seven further charges – three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

The trial continues.

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