By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) -An alleged victim of Kevin Spacey told a London court on Monday that he believes the Oscar-winning U.S. actor drugged him before performing oral sex on him after he had passed out.
Spacey is on trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court on a dozen charges of historic sex offences against four men, then aged in their 20s and 30s, between 2001 and 2013.
The 63-year-old has denied all the charges and his lawyer Patrick Gibbs said at the start of the trial that the jury were going to hear some “damned lies”.
The trial, entering its third week on Monday, heard the evidence of the fourth complainant, who described Spacey as a “vile sexual predator”.
The man, who cannot be identified, alleges Spacey sexually assaulted him and then performed oral sex on him while he was passed out in Spacey’s London apartment in the late 2000s.
Giving evidence in person behind a screen, the man denied suggestions by Gibbs that he consented and said he “fell asleep or, I believe, (was) drugged” before the sex.
Gibbs said it was “well-known in the theatre industry that Mr Spacey liked to flirt with men”, which the alleged victim accepted.
The lawyer said the complainant continued to speak to Spacey after the actor allegedly put his face in his crotch, meaning he “appeared to be comfortable in the flat”.
The alleged victim denied that was true, saying: “I was made to feel like I was being circled by a shark.” He also described Spacey as “atrocious, despicable (and) disgusting”.
He also said he had brought a civil lawsuit against Spacey in Britain, seeking around 400,000 pounds (around $510,000) in damages, but added: “What I want is criminal justice.”
The man said he would “relinquish everything” if Spacey apologised to him, but he thought that was “doubtful”.
‘PREDATOR’
The alleged victim had told the police he wrote to Spacey to ask for advice on his fledgling acting career when he was in his 20s and received a call from Spacey while drinking in a pub.
Spacey asked him if he wanted to “meet up for a beer and I said ‘yeah, of course’,” the man told officers. He added he was “star-struck by the idea of meeting essentially an idol”.
He said in a recorded police interview played to jurors that they met in central London before going to Spacey’s flat, where the pair drank beer, ate pizza and smoked some cannabis.
The alleged victim said he thanked Spacey for his help and the actor “opened up his arms and he went ‘come here’ and I didn’t, I thought it was a bit weird”.
He said Spacey then “was just rubbing his face into my crotch basically”.
The man was asked by police if he thought of leaving after that. He said he felt “vulnerable”, but added: “There was also still that niggling doubt … Maybe I’m being a dick here, maybe this is the theatre world.”
He also said that he did not want to “annoy someone that powerful” in the acting world.
The man told the police that he then fell asleep, which he said was unusual, and when he woke up a few hours later Spacey “was just performing oral sex on me … I woke up to it happening”.
He added that he told Spacey to stop, after which the actor told him to leave and not tell anyone what had happened.
Later in his interview, the man said he had been told that Spacey liked “young, straight guys”, but was then unconcerned as he “didn’t know at that point that he (Spacey) was a predator”.
Gibbs said Spacey’s phone records showed the actor called the alleged victim just before 1 a.m. on the day of the alleged assault, suggesting he left Spacey’s flat “almost immediately after some very intimate contact” between him and Spacey.
Giving evidence in court from the behind a screen, the complainant replied: “No, that’s not true. I woke up in the morning.” He also said: “Nothing happened that was consensual.”
Gibbs also said the man texted Spacey shortly after the alleged assault. The complainant said he wanted to record Spacey admitting what had happened, but they did not meet again.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Mark Heinrich and Nick Macfie)
