Actor Kevin Spacey Charged With 4 Counts Of Sexual Assault In UK

LONDON — Actor and New Jersey native Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault in the United Kingdom following a year-long investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service, according to a report.

Spacey, whose career came to an abrupt halt in 2017 when "Rent" actor Anthony Rapp accused the star of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s, has been charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of "causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent," Variety reported.

"The CPS has authorised criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men," Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said in a statement published by Variety.

The charges follow a review of evidence gathered by London’s Metropolitan Police.

Authorities say the incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in western England in April 2013. The alleged victims are now in their 30s and 40s.

Spacey, a 62-year-old double Academy Award winner, was questioned by British police in 2019 about claims by several men that he had assaulted them. The former "House of Cards" star ran London’s Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015.

The charges were announced as Spacey was testifying in a courtroom in New York City in a civil lawsuit filed by Rapp, who was a teenager when the reported assault took place.

A criminal case brought against him, an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from the alleged groping of an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket resort, was dismissed by Massachusetts prosecutors in 2019.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.