British prosecutors are expanding their charges against Hollywood star Kevin Spacey for sexual assault. Charges against Spacey have been approved in a further seven cases, said Rosemary Ainslie of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in London. All allegations were made by a man, the alleged time of the crime is between 2001 and 2004. The London police had previously reviewed the evidence they had collected as part of their investigation, Ainslie said. In one of the cases, he was charged with forcing a person to engage in “penetrative sexual activity.”
At the end of May, Spacey had already been charged in the UK with sexual assault against three men between 2005 and 2013. The two-time Oscar winner (“American Beauty”, “The Usual Suspects”) rejected the allegations in court in July.
A New York court acquitted Spacey in October
The 63-year-old won another case in court: in October in New York, a US jury unanimously acquitted him of the charge of sexually assaulting actor Anthony Rapp with physical harm. During questioning by Spacey’s attorneys, Rapp also embroiled numerous contradictions about the 1986 incident. The jury’s decision in New York offers an outlook on how the allegations against Spacey will continue overall, his defense attorney Jennifer Keller then said.
Rapp’s allegations, made public for the first time in 2017 in the course of the MeToo debate, had led to many other allegations and shaken Spacey’s then successful career. Several victims went to court, but some lawsuits were dropped or dismissed due to the statute of limitations. Crew members of the Netflix series “House of Cards” also accused Spacey of sexual harassment. The streaming giant then canceled the collaboration with him.