Kevin Spacey has made his first appearance in a U.K. criminal court on charges of sexual assault.
Last month the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), similar to a District Attorney in the U.S., authorized charges to be brought against the actor. He has been charged with four counts of sexual assault in the U.K. against three men between 2005 and 2013. He was also charged with “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.” The alleged victims are now in their 30s and 40s.
On Thursday morning, Spacey appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in London to acknowledge the charges.
The actor, who was once the toast of Hollywood, appeared calm as he was led in through Courtroom 1 and into the glass-panelled dock, dressed in a dark blue suit, white shirt and black tie with glasses. He spoke only to give his name, date of birth and U.K. address and nodded as the charges were read.
Initially, deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram referred to Spacey as “Mr Fowler” – the actor’s birth name – until the his barrister, Patrick Gibbs QC, explained to the court he would refer to his client as “Mr Spacey.” When the deputy chief magistrate asked Spacey directly how he would prefer to be referred to by the court, the actor indicated he would prefer “Mr Spacey.”
The first matter the court dealt with was withdrawing a warrant for Spacey’s arrest, as Mr Ikram acknowledged the actor had voluntary submitted himself to be charged.
Much of the subsequent hearing was taken up with discussing bail conditions, with the CPS requesting bail on condition that Spacey surrendered his travel documents, promised not to apply for any other travel documents, slept at his London address and did not contact the prosecution’s witnesses except via lawyers where necessary.
In particular, prosecutor Natalie Dawson said that while she understood Spacey wanted to return to the U.S. to work, and that the CPS did not want to prevent Spacey from working, she said that the agency was concerned about the actor travelling outside the U.K. as the trial approached. Given the potential sentence if convicted, it was “reasonably foreseeable” Spacey would not return to the U.K. to stand trial, Dawson said.
She also added that if the court was considering requesting some kind of security from Spacey to prevent him from absconding, it would need to be “commensurate with the defendant’s wealth” to be a “reasonable deterrent” because the CPS believes Spacey to be “a man of significant means” (a British euphemism meaning the CPS believes Spacey is wealthy). (Variety)