Kevin Spacey Acquitted on Sexual Assault Charges in London

Oscar-winning gay actor Kevin Spacey has been found not guilty by a court in London Wednesday. It was the actor’s 64^th birthday.

As the verdict was read out, media outlets in the courtroom said the actor had tears running down his face.

The four-week trial dealt with allegations between 2004 and 2013. During that time, Spacey was the artistic director at the Old Vic Theater in London.

Spacey had pleaded not guilty to all charges. After the verdict was announced, Spacey thanked the jury, who had deliberated 12 hours and 26 minutes over the course of three days.

The actor starred in the Netflix series House of Cards until he was fired in 2017 over alleged sexual misconduct on the set.

British prosecutor Christine Agnew called Spacey a “sexual bully” during the trial.

“He is also, the prosecution allege, a man who sexually assaults other men,” Agnew told the court. “A man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable. A sexual bully. His preferred method of assault is it appears to grab aggressively other men in the crotch. On one occasion things went further than that.”

Spacey’s counsel Patrick Gibbs admitted his the actor had engaged in consensual sexual relations with the men, but said their stories had elements “reimagined with a sinister spin” with “some truths and some half-truths” as well as “many damned lies,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The actor took the stand leading up to the verdict.

“My world exploded,” Spacey testified, the AP reports. “There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days.”

A New York jury last year found him not liable for battery on allegations that he picked up actor Anthony Rapp and briefly lay on top of him in a bed after a party in 1986.

In 2020, Spacey was ordered to pay approximately $31 million to MRC, the studio behind House of Cards, for breach of contract for violating its sexual harassment policy.