Kevin Spacey acquitted of all 9 sex-offence charges
Jurors reached decision after 4-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in London
U.S. actor Kevin Spacey was found not guilty on Wednesday by a jury at a London court of committing sex offences against four men between the early 2000s and mid-2010s.
The 64-year-old Oscar-winner was acquitted of nine charges, including sexual assault, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
During the four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, jurors were told by prosecutors that the actor had aggressively groped three of the men when he was working as artistic director at London's Old Vic Theatre.
The fourth said Spacey performed oral sex on him while he had passed out in the Hollywood star's London apartment.
When he gave evidence, Spacey, who was tried under his full name Kevin Spacey Fowler, said the case against him was weak and that the incidents, if they had occurred, were consensual. He said he was promiscuous, a "big flirt" who had "casual, indiscriminate sexual encounters."
Defence lawyer Patrick Gibbs said three of the men were liars and the alleged interactions had been "reimagined with a sinister spin." He accused most of them of hopping on a "bandwagon" of complaints in the hope of striking it rich.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew told jurors that Spacey was a "sexual bully" who took what he wanted, when he wanted. She said he was shielded by a "trinity of protection": he knew men were unlikely to complain; they wouldn't be believed if they did complain; and if they did complain, no action would be taken because he was powerful.
Ari Goldkind, a Toronto lawyer and legal analyst, told CBC News in an interview that it's difficult to predict what juries will decide in the post-Me Too era.
"You balance out the prosecution's stance that because he's famous, he essentially gets away with murder, versus his position, which is because I'm famous, I get accused of murder," Goldkind said.
Elton John gave key testimony
The verdict came about 20 minutes after jurors said they were deadlocked and the judge told them they could reach verdicts without unanimity — a provision allowed in English criminal cases.
Justice Mark Wall told the panel of nine men and three women that it could reach verdicts if at least 10 of 12 jurors agreed. They deliberated nearly 12.5 hours over three days in a trial that spanned nearly a month.
Shortly before reaching the impasse, jurors had asked Wall to summarize the testimony of a man who said the actor grabbed his crotch so forcefully while he was driving to a gala at Elton John's, he almost ran off the road.
In a cameo appearance, the rock star and his husband, David Furnish, testified by video from Monaco and offered a timeline that cast doubt on the driver's account. They said Spacey didn't attend the White Tie and Tiara Ball the year the man said, but had been a surprise guest three or four years earlier, in 2001.
That was significant because the man said he had begun working with Spacey in the early 2000s and suffered from unwanted fondling for years. He said the incident in the car was the final straw and he avoided the star afterward.
The men came forward after an American actor accused Spacey of an incident of sexual misconduct as the Me Too movement heated up in 2017.
Several of the men said they had been haunted by the abuse and couldn't bear to watch Spacey's films.
One of the men broke down when speaking with police as he provided details in a videotaped interview about the oral sex incident that he said he'd never told anyone before. Another man said he was angry about the abuse that occurred sporadically over several years, and began to drink and work out more to cope with it.
Spacey choked up and became teary-eyed in the witness box as he described the emotional and financial turmoil that the U.S. accusations brought and the barrage of criticism that followed on social media.
"My world exploded," Spacey testified. "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."
Spacey was booted from House of Cards, and his scenes in All the Money in the World were scrubbed and he was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Aside from some small projects, he has barely worked as an actor in six years.
A New York jury last year swiftly cleared Spacey in a $40-million US lawsuit by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp on allegations dating back three decades. Prosecutors in Massachusetts dropped charges when the alleged victim suddenly refused to testify.
Los Angeles prosecutors declined to bring charges after the death of a massage therapist who said Spacey forced him to touch the actor's genitals during a rub down at Spacey's home in Malibu in 2016.
Spacey said that being out of work had left him with bills he's still paying.
An arbitrator in L.A. ordered Spacey to pay nearly $31 million US to the makers of House of Cards for violating his contract by sexually harassing crew members.
With files from the Associated Press and CBC News