Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.”
The decision was unveiled Thursday by the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which has spent over a year reviewing a file passed to them by the Metropolitan Police.
“The CPS has authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men,” said Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division. “He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation. The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.”
At least some of the charges are believed to stem from Spacey’s time at the Old Vic theater in London, where he served as artistic director from 2004-2015. Following a cascade of sexual assault allegations against the actor in the U.S., the theater undertook an internal investigation which, according to the BBC, resulted in 20 victims coming forward who claimed he had behaved inappropriately toward them.
The charges are the latest in a series of legal battles both civil and criminal that Spacey has been fighting since allegations of his sexual assault and misconduct were first publicly exposed in 2017 by “Rent” and “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp. Rapp told Buzzfeed News that when he was 14 Spacey made a non-consensual sexual advance toward him at a party.
Spacey, who has denied Rapp’s claims, is still embroiled in a civil suit over the allegations after Rapp sued him in New York for sexual abuse. Last month, Spacey reportedly filed paper requesting the case be dismissed. Rapp’s co-claimant, known only as C.D. and who also claimed Spacey had abused him as a teenager, was dropped from the lawsuit last June after refusing to reveal his identity to the court.
