Kevin Spacey "strenuously denies" allegations of sexual assault, his lawyer said Thursday, as the Oscar-winning actor appeared in a London court to face five charges of offenses against three men.
Photographers and television camera crews thronged Spacey, 62, as he arrived at London's Westminster Magistrates Court for the preliminary hearing.
Spacey sat in the glass-fronted dock during the half-hour hearing, standing to give his full name — Kevin Spacey Fowler — as well as his birthdate and a London address.
He was not asked to enter a formal plea, but his lawyer, Patrick Gibbs, said: "Mr. Spacey strenuously denies any and all criminality in this case."
Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram granted Spacey unconditional bail until his next appearance, a plea hearing scheduled for July 14.
The former "House of Cards" star is accused of four counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in western England in April 2013. The victims are now in their 30s and 40s.
In a statement issued last month, Spacey said he would travel to Britain to face the charges and was confident he would "prove my innocence."
Spacey was questioned by British police in 2019 about claims by several men that he had assaulted them. The two-time Academy Award winner ran London's Old Vic theater between 2004 and 2015.
Spacey won a best supporting actor Academy Award for the 1995 film "The Usual Suspects" and a lead actor Oscar for the 1999 movie "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.
Supreme Court declines to hear appeal from singer R. Kelly, convicted of child sex crimes
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal Monday from the singer R. Kelly, who is now serving 20 years in prison after being convicted of child sex convictions in Chicago.
The Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in 2022 of three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
His lawyers argued that a shorter statute of limitations on child sex crime prosecutions should have applied to offenses dating back to the 1990s. Current law permits charges while an accuser is still alive.
The justices did not detail their reasoning in declining to hear the case, as is typical. And none publicly dissented. Lower courts previously rejected his arguments.
Federal prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser identified only as Jane testified that she was 14 when the video was taken.
Kelly has also appealed a separate 30-year sentence for federal racketeering and sex trafficking convictions in New York.
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