AWAITING HIS FATE

THE ACTOR'S FUTURE HANGS IN THE BALANCE AS A JURY DELIBERATES OVER SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS

- Sara Tapia

Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault trial in London has drawn to a dramatic close, and the jury’s verdict was imminent at the time of going to press. The Oscar-winning actor was charged with nine sexual offences relating to four men between 2001 and 2013 – charges he vehemently denied.

During the four-week trial, two very different sides of the story were painted. While his accusers labelled Spacey a “vile sexual predator” and described him as “slippery” and “atrocious, despicable, disgusting”, the actor called the allegations “madness” and a “stab in the back”– accusing one victim of being after “money, money, and then money”.

The prosecution and defence teams have been equally divergent. In closing arguments on July 20, the 63-year-old’s attorney, Patrick Gibbs KC, alleged that three of the accusers had lied and suggested that the fourth complainant was intoxicated. He said that while Spacey had perhaps led “a bit of an odd life”, it was “a life that makes you an easy target when the internet turns against you and you’re tried by social media”.

“That’s when these claims were taken to the police, when it was, I suggest, only too easy to do and the prospects of a pay-off from the bandwagon were at their most irresistible,” Spacey’s attorney added.