Kevin Spacey: actor pleads not guilty to UK sexual assault charges

American actor Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty to seven new sexual assault charges in the UK on Friday, January 13, months after previously denying other similar charges. The 63-year-old Hollywood star, who attended the hearing at Southwark Court in London by videoconference, is accused of sexual assault on a man which allegedly occurred between 2001 and 2004.

The two-time Oscar winner (for American Beauty and The Usual Suspects) has already been prosecuted for four sexual assaults on three men between March 2005 and April 2013, when he was director of the London theater, Old Vic. Tried in July during a hearing for which he had made the trip to London, he had also pleaded not guilty. In total, he must therefore now respond to 12 charges related to accusations of sexual assault on four men between 2001 and 2013. The actor's trial which is scheduled for next June and should last a month, will address all of these charges. A procedural hearing is scheduled for April 5.

Kevin Spacey, whose career has been largely put on hold by these cases, also faced charges in the United States. Last October, he was found not guilty of sexual assault in a New York civil court. He was also accused of indecent assault and sexual assault on an 18-year-old young man in a bar in the state of Massachusetts, on the East Coast. The charges were dropped in July 2019.