LONDON (AP) — Kevin Spacey has denied grabbing men by the crotch was his “trademark” pick-up decision as he grew testy during questioning Friday by the prosecutor during his sexual assault trial in a London courtroom.
In a heated exchange that required the intervention of the judge, Spacey was asked about allegations that he aggressively grabbed a man backstage at a charity event at a theatre.
“Absolute bullshit!” Spacey responded to chuckles from the gallery in the crowded courtroom.
“Yeah, because that’s exactly where you grabbed it, right?” Prosecutor Christine Agnew countered.
” Really ? Spacey said, looking up in disbelief at Judge Mark Wall. “Did he accuse me of catching his bullshit?”
Someone said, “Yes,” and Wall told him to answer the prosecutor’s question.
“I didn’t,” Spacey said.
The two-time Oscar winner stood by his testimony the day before in which he insisted he had never sexually assaulted three of the four accusers who described disturbing encounters between 2001 and 2013. The acts would have degenerated into unwanted touching and aggressive caresses. performing an oral sex act on an unconscious man.
He dismissed a man’s claims of fondling as ‘pure fantasy’ and said he had shared consensual encounters with two others who later regretted it. He accepted the claims of a fourth man, saying he made an ‘awkward pass’ during a night of heavy drinking, but he took issue with the ‘crotch grabbing’ characterization .
Spacey was petulant at times and laughed off other questions in his final chance to win over jurors in a case that could affect his ability to make a comeback after sexual misconduct accusations derailed his once stellar career.
The 63-year-old American, who is identified in court by his full name Kevin Spacey Fowler, pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges including counts of sexual and indecent assault and one count of having caused a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity. without consent. He could face jail time if convicted.
Spacey rarely looked at Agnew as the two argued, directing his gaze at the jury at Southwark Crown Court but without his glasses. She pressed him on each of the allegations, saying the men who testified against him had told the truth and Spacey insisting they had lied.
Agnew said Spacey was not only the “big flirt” he claimed to be, but also a “big sex bully”.
“That’s your term,” Spacey replied.
Agnew suggested Spacey got excited sitting next to a man in a theater during a rehearsal for a charity event. She said he decided to “go for it” later when he grabbed the genitals of a man backstage who described Spacey’s hand as being like a punching cobra.
“You’re just making stuff up now,” Spacey said.
When asked why the man would lie, Spacey replied, “Money, money and then money.”
This man and another have sued him.
Spacey said being a celebrity would have made it easier to have “sex all the time”, but he found it hard to trust people and that led to periods of loneliness.
“Did you then contact people sexually in order to ease that burden?” asked Agnew.
“Welcome to life,” Spacey replied. “Yes, yes, I did.”
Spacey said he’s been promiscuous at times, adding, “That doesn’t make me a bad person.”
If he was dating someone, he said reaching for his groin would be an inappropriate first step.
He objected to the term ‘crotch grab’ to describe what he did in the event he said he misread signs from a man he met in a pub.
“I would say in my estimation it’s not a catch, not a trial and error,” he said of what he had done. “It’s a sweet touch.”
“The fact is, Mr. Spacey Fowler, this is your MO,” Agnew said bluntly.
The alleged victims all said they only came forward after allegations against Spacey surfaced in the US in 2017, as the #MeToo movement gained momentum.
Agnew said Spacey took advantage of his powerful status as “essentially the golden boy of the London theater scene” and knew his victims were unlikely to speak out against him.
Spacey said he only used his position to restore the Old Vic Theatre, where he served as artistic director for a decade, to its former glory.
“I didn’t have a magic wand that I waved in people’s faces every time I wanted someone to go to bed with me,” he said.
Asked about the most serious charge he faces, based on allegations that he performed oral sex on an aspiring actor who fell asleep or passed out on his couch, Agnew disputed the Spacey’s account that the encounter had been consensual and romantic.
She questioned Spacey’s explanation that he had phoned the man out of concern after he rushed out of his apartment. Agnew suggested the man was, in fact, unconscious when the call was made, indicating it was either a mistake or a pocket number.
“That’s your theory,” Spacey said.
“That’s the prosecution case,” Agnew replied.
“And he’s a weakling!” he replied.