Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey is currently on trial in London. Spacey is accused of sexually assaulting four men between 2001 and 2013. However, Spacey has denied all 12 charges leveled against him, claiming any sexual contact between him and his alleged victims was consensual. Despite this, the 12 charges are just a fraction of the allegations against Spacey. Overall, 30 men have made allegations about Spacey, including a number who were minors at the time of the incident. This includes the first man to accuse Spacey, Anthony Rapp. Speaking to Buzzfeed in 2017, Rapp claimed that Spacey had sexually assaulted him at the age of 14.
However, Rapp's case against Spacey in New York was dismissed in October 2022 after a jury trial that Rapp had not substantially proved his allegations. There are several other allegations from the UK against Spacey, such as that of Kate Edwards. Edwards alleged to the BBC that in 1986, Spacey had tried to pressure her into sex. Edwards, who was 17 at the time, said that after rejecting Spacey, the actor became cold towards her and left her to find her own way home from a party.
Spacey Employs "Flirt" Defense
"I never thought that (the man) I knew would … 20 years later stab me in the back," Spacey said of one of his accusers in the London trial. Furthermore, Spacey described his relationship with that specific accuser as "romantic" and "somewhat sexual". Furthermore, Spacey said, "I liked him greatly. We had a good time together. We laughed a lot." However, a lot of these comments are essentially textbook defenses for a sexual abuser. Furthermore, Spacey, seen here talking like a lovestruck teen, was at least 40 at the time of the alleged assaults.
"I'm a flirt, I'm a big flirt," Space argued. "It didn’t happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way. It was gentle and it was touching and it was, in my mind, romantic," he added, speaking on the alleged molestation brought forward by that specific accuser. Furthermore, Spacey went on to say that the allegations "made no logical sense" and that his accusers were simply bringing forward untrue allegations because they regretted being intimate with him. Spacey's trial is set to continue, with a verdict expected before the fall.
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