'Humbled': Kevin Spacey reacts after being found not guilty of sexual offences

After more than 12 hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted the Oscar-winning actor of 9 charges

By Reuters

Published: Wed 26 Jul 2023, 7:47 PM

US actor Kevin Spacey said on Wednesday he had been humbled by the outcome in his London court case where he was cleared of nine historic sexual offence charges.

"I imagine that many of you can understand that there's a lot for me to process after what has just happened today," he told reporters outside court. "I am humbled by the outcome today."

Spacey broke down in tears after a jury in a London court found him not guilty. After more than 12 hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted the Oscar-winning U.S. actor of nine charges which he was accused of committing between 2004 and 2013 at a time when he was working at London's Old Vic theatre.

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Spacey, who turned 64 on Wednesday, began to cry and mouthed "thank you" to the nine men and three woman jurors, before wiping away tears with a tissue. After he was released from the dock, he shook hands with his lawyers before leaving the court room via a side door.

During the four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, prosecutors described the actor as a "sexual bully" who had aggressively groped three of the men and performed oral sex on the fourth while he had passed out in the Hollywood star's London apartment.

When he gave evidence, the film star, who was tried under his full name Kevin Spacey Fowler, said the case against him was weak, and that the incidents, if they had occurred at all, were consensual. He said he was promiscuous, a "big flirt" who had "casual, indiscriminate sexual encounters".

While he might have made a clumsy pass at one of the men, he said he had never assaulted anyone and suggested that the accusers had come forward to make money.

Spacey told the court three of the four complainants had brought civil lawsuits against him, saying one had contacted him seeking a payment of more than 450,000 pounds ($577,400).

He also said he had tasked private investigators to look into at least three of the men.

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