Kevin Spacey felt ‘crushed’ after first accuser stabbed him in the back

Kevin Spacey today (thues) admitted he is a ‘big flirt’ as he told a court he felt his first accuser had stabbed him in the back.

The 63-year-old double Oscar winner is accused of assaulting four men ‘for his own sexual gratification’ between 2001 and 2013.

Jurors have heard the House of Cards star is a ‘sexual bully’ who delighted in making his assault victims feel ‘powerless and uncomfortable’.

Spacey carried out offences involving grabbing, squeezing, and touching of his four victims’ genitals and buttocks over their clothing, Southwark Crown Court has heard.

He carried out the alleged assaults mostly during his time as Artistic Director at The Old Vic theatre.

Immaculately dressed in a dark suit and a baby blue tie, the bespectacled American Beauty star smiled and chatted with the dock officer.

After swearing on the bible to ‘tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’,
Spacey said of his first alleged victim.

‘He was charming and funny.

‘I liked him a great deal, we had a good time together. We laughed a lot.

‘We talked about a lot of things and it was very relaxed with him, and somewhat intimate, and we enjoyed each other’s company.

‘We drove around together. He was a lad’s lad, he was funny.

‘He was funny and charming and flirtatious.

‘And over time we began, I’m assuming it was me who began, to touch him in more romantic ways and intimate ways.’

Asked if he was flirtatious, Spacey replied: ‘Yes, I’m a big flirt’.

He added: ‘And just slowly over time it became somewhat sexual but not – we never had sex together – because he made it clear he didn’t want to go any further and that happens at times and you just respect how far someone wants to go or not go.

‘But it was jovial.

‘I can’t remember specific conversation but I remember the tone, the atmosphere, the laughter and that we had a very fun time together.’

Admitting he did touch the man, Spacey said: ‘It did not happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way.

‘It was gentle and it was touching and it was in my mind romantic. I think he wanted things to be romantic but it was not as he has described.’

Spacey added that he touched the man’s leg and groin area in both silence and when they were talking.

‘It developed the more time we spent together the more comfortable we were together, so it developed over time.

‘I’m going to assume that I would have taken the lead.’

Spacey said he never kissed or had sex with the man.

Explaining why he sat in the front of the car with the man the actor said: ‘I feel a little posh sitting in the back seat.

‘I like driving, I like to drive but in a car in a particular situation particularly if I’m getting along with someone sitting in the front is more enjoyable for me.’

Spacey said he believed he had encounters with the man ‘ten times, maybe less’.

He told the court on one occasion the man came to his hotel room.

‘He came up for a drink. It was the only time we came together and I thought maybe something more would happen together.

‘That was the only time I thought something might happen when we were just hanging out together.’

He denies seven sexual offences relating the his first accuser between 1 May 2004 and 24 June 2005.

Describing his feelings after finding out about the allegations, Spacey told jurors: ‘I was crushed. I never thought the [man] I knew would, what 20 years later, stab me in the back.’

Explaining why he once wrote a postcard to the man asking he perform a monologue at the top of a mountain after a charity sponsored climb, Spacey said: ‘I thought it’s a slightly funny request.

‘He’s not an actor but I thought, you know, he’s climbing this mountain at the top, you know, a reach experience. It’s one of the great monologues so I thought it was kind of a cute idea.’

Spacey said he had first the man in 1999, after flying to London to see a production at The Old Vic.

The man alleges that Spacey grabbed his crotch as he drove the star to Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara ball at the Rocket Man singer’s Berkshire mansion in July 2001.

Patrick Gibbs, KC, defending Spacey, asked: ‘2001 was the only year you were photographed at the White Tie and Tiara ball. Did you go any other year?’

Spacey replied: ‘No I did not.

‘I started to look back through boxes, and boxes, and boxes of where I was and looking at contacts between myself and my publisher.

‘Trying to work out at what place I was and at what time, because I had been accused of something that allegedly happened in 2004 or 2005.’

The LA Confidential star said he even Googled ‘Where was Kevin Spacey in 2005” and found he was leading a play at the Old Vic before heading to Australia.

Mr Gibbs earlier told jurors: ‘We’re at half-time now.

‘I suggested that there might be some obstacles to the truth.

‘Those obstacles were rumour, fame and how fame makes people behave towards you.

‘And secrecy and shame and sexual confusion.

‘Having now watched the men who accused Mr Spacey and heard me do my best to test their stories, as best anyone can in court, so you can assess them not just on the screen but in real life.

‘I hope those obstacles to the real truth are in pretty clear sight, because once you can see the obstacles, once you identify the obstacles, you can identify how to overcome them.

‘I asked you to keep an eye out for what happened, whether it was consensual, whether it appeared to be consensual, what may have been reimagined with a sinister spin and what has really been twisted out of all recognition out of the truth and why that might have happened and when.

‘All these allegations may fit into the morass of rumour and money payments and stakes and temptations and opportunities that large amounts of money may create.

‘And I hope that you privately decide that you can now see why those questions are worth keeping in mind.’

The actor confirmed that he was born in South Orange, New Jersey, in the US.

From the age of three he moved to Los Angeles, Santa Monica. He was raised in different suburbs of LA until he was 18.

His mother was a private secretary and his father a technical procedure writer for aircraft operations.

After attending a military academy, Spacey said it was suggested by a teacher that he had ‘excessive amounts of energy’ and should elect to either take drama or chop wood.

‘I got into drama in the Eight Grade, and I continued to get into the drama class.’

His first acting job was in New York in a series of parts in Henry IV part I as part of ‘Shakespeare in the Park’, a free-to-view performance.

He added: ‘I felt I wasn’t good enough to play in the leagues I wanted to play, so I did three years of regional acting. To learn my craft.’

He secured his first film role in 1985 at the age of 26, before coming to London in 1986 as an actor at the Haymarket theatre.

He transferred to The Old Vic in 1998 and became Artistic Director in 2003.

He said: ‘I was crazy enough at some point to throw my hat into the ring as a possible candidate.

‘I had no idea what I was doing, I never ran anything in my life, I never ran a theatre, there were a lot of people that joined me, incredible people.’

In 2015 he finished at The Old Vic as filming began for the American reboot of House of Cards.

Spacey, originally from New Jersey, USA, denies 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 allegation of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

An alternative count of sexual assault in relation to the first complainant has been added to the indictment to reflect the possibility that the offence occurred before 2004.

The two-time Oscar winner starred in Glengarry Glen Ross, Seven, LA Confidential and Baby Driver. He also had the lead role in the Netflix series House of Cards.

The trial continues with Spacey to give evidence until the beginning of next week.

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