Kevin Spacey responds to sexual assault charges

Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty in a London court on Thursday to charges of sexually assaulting three men between 2005 and 2013 in Britain.

Spacey’s lawyer Patrick Gibbs said last month that the actor “strenuously denies” the allegations and has traveled to Britain to “establish his innocence.” 

The actor was allowed to return to the US on bail after a preliminary hearing last month.

The alleged incidents took place in London in 2005 and 2008 and in southwest England in 2013. Two of the accusers are now in their 30s and one is in his 40s.

Spacey, who was a stage actor before transitioning to the big screen, won two Oscars for his roles in ‘The Usual Suspects’ (1995) and ‘American Beauty’ (1999). His prolific career collapsed in 2017 after multiple men accused him of sexual assault. He denied the allegations at the time.

The scandal led Spacey to lose the lead role in the hit TV series ‘House of Cards’. He was also edited out from Ridley Scott’s thriller ‘All the Money in the World’, which came out at the end of 2017. The actor has since largely maintained a low profile.

While three other US cases against him have been dismissed, Spacey still faces a lawsuit by actor Anthony Rapp, who says he was sexually assaulted by the actor at a party in New York in 1986, when he was just 14.