British prosecutors on Thursday announced multiple sexual assault charges against embattled American actor Kevin Spacey, including one charge of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.”
In a press release, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) claimed to have gathered enough evidence to charge Spacey, 62, with four counts of sexual assault against three men in the U.K. between 2005 and 2013, in addition to the non-consensual sexual activity charge.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS’ Special Crime Division, said the charges followed her department’s review of evidence gathered by London’s Metropolitan Police.
Authorities made clear that the pronouncement of charges does not predetermine guilt and warned news outlets not to engage in any “reporting, commentary, or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”
According to the release, two of the alleged assaults happened in London in March 2005 against one person. A third alleged assault and the alleged non-consensual sexual activity also happened in the U.K.’s capital city in August 2008 against a second man.
Then, a fourth sexual assault against a third man allegedly occurred in 2013 in Gloucestershire, a county approximately 100 miles west of London.
Spacey — a two-time Academy Award winner best known for his work in the movies “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” and his television work in Netflix’s “House of Cards” — spent considerable time in the U.K. between 2004 and 2015 while serving as artistic director for London’s Old Vic theater.
His storied career abruptly came to an in 2017 after fellow actor Anthony Rapp accused him of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s. Rapp was only 14 years old at the time, NBC News reported.
Shortly after, Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos claimed the star would frequent the Old Vic’s bar and “squeeze whoever caught his attention.” Spacey has denied this and all previous allegations made against him.
That year, Old Vic acknowledged that it received 20 allegations of “inappropriate behavior” against Spacey during his tenure at the theater, all involving men.
According to the Associated Press, the new U.K. charges were announced as Spacey testified in a courtroom in New York City on Thursday for the civil lawsuit filed by Rapp.
The actor reportedly didn’t respond to reporters as he left the courthouse talking on his cell phone, and his lawyers declined to comment when the charges were brought up during a break in the testimony. As of Thursday afternoon, no public statement had been issued.