The Associated Press Published Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 10:58 AM EDT Last Updated on Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 6:59 PM EDT
LONDON (AP) – British prosecutors said on Thursday they had authorized police to charge actor Kevin Spacey with four counts of sexual assault against three men, an announcement that came when the actor was in court in Nova York declaring in a different case.
The Crown Prosecutor’s Office said it had “authorized criminal charges” for the four counts of sexual assault and one of “causing a person to engage in penetrating sexual activity without consent.”
The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in the west of England in April 2013. The alleged victims are now between 30 and 40 years old.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the service’s Special Crimes Division, said the charges followed a review of evidence gathered by the London Metropolitan Police.
Prosecutors initially said Spacey had been charged. However, they later clarified that the charges had been authorized, but the formal charge by the police had not yet taken place.
Authorization to upload means criminal proceedings are being instituted against Spacey. Police said Spacey, who is not currently in Britain, “will be formally charged at a later date”.
If Spacey does not return to Britain to deal with the charges, prosecutors could try to initiate extradition proceedings.
Spacey, a 62-year-old Academy Award double, was questioned by British police in 2019 over the allegations of several men who had assaulted them. The former “House of Cards” star directed London’s Old Vic Theater between 2004 and 2015.
Spacey won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects” and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the 1999 film “American Beauty”.
But his celebrated career came to an abrupt halt in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp accused the star of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s, when Rapp was a teenager. Spacey denies the allegations.
Spacey testified Thursday in a New York City courtroom in the civil lawsuit filed by Rapp. Spacey did not respond to reporters as he walked out of court talking on his cell phone.
Rapp’s lawyers briefly mentioned British charges during the court hearing, and reporters asked Spacey’s lawyers during a pause in testimony. They refused to comment.
In 2019, Massachusetts prosecutors dismissed another criminal case filed against Spacey, an indecent assault and a battery charge stemming from the alleged palpitations of an 18-year-old man in a Nantucket complex.
Thursday’s court hearing in New York City addressed a technical issue in the civil lawsuit, whether it was better dealt with in a U.S. federal or state court. Spacey was called to testify about where he lived, not about the veracity of the allegations against him.
Spacey stated that his main residence and address are in Baltimore, where he moved for the filming of “House of Cards.” He said he was “deceived by her charm, her beauty.” But he also testified to his stay in London as artistic director of Old Vic.
“It was extremely important to me to be loved by the British public, not to run away from me,” he said, noting that his start there was concerned about a “disastrous production” in 2005. last work by Arthur Miller.
But he said, “I’m an American citizen. Once I got the job done, I went back to America.”
He said he made a trip to London in February 2020 for a possible film, but then came the pandemic. His American doctor advised him to stay there, where he resided until the following September, when his visa expired and he flew to Los Angeles for an arbitration proceeding.
He said he has not returned to the UK since.
Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report from New York.