Kevin Spacey took a dramatic pause in his testimony Thursday and appeared to almost choke up as he recalled the "intimate" and "somewhat sexual" friendship he shared with a man now accusing the actor of violently groping him. "I never thought that [the man] I knew would ... 20 years later stab me in the back," Spacey testified in his own defense in his sexual assault trial, in what could be the most consequential speaking part of his life, per the AP. Four men have accused the two-time Oscar winner of sexually assaulting them between 2001 and 2013, describing disturbing encounters that escalated from unwanted touching to aggressive crotch-grabbing.
One man who called Spacey a "vile sexual predator" said he passed out or fell asleep at the actor's London flat and woke up to find the actor performing oral sex on him. Another accuser said Spacey on several occasions over the years had touched his inner thigh, buttocks, and crotch in unwelcome ways that made him uncomfortable. The fondling culminated when the man was once driving Spacey and the actor grabbed his crotch so violently he almost ran off the road, the man testified. The alleged victim told police he warned Spacey to never do it again and threatened to knock him out. "That never happened," Spacey testified. He described the relationship much differently, appearing wistful as he looked at a photo the man had sent him.
Spacey said the man was funny and charming and recalled their flirtatious time together, saying he probably took the lead in making physical contact: "I'm a big flirt." Slowly, the two men began touching each other, Spacey said, but it never went much further, because the man made it clear he didn't want that. "He said things like, 'This is new for me,' so I think he may have been surprised by his reaction," Spacey said. "The only thing he made clear was he didn't want to go further than we were going and I respected that." Spacey's description of gentle stroking was in direct contradiction to what the alleged victims testified about. They said he caught them by surprise when he aggressively grabbed their privates through their clothing.
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"It wasn't like a caress," one man testified. "It was like a cobra coming out and getting hold." Spacey called that man's account "madness" and said it never happened. He poked a hole in the driver's story by calling the timing of the account into question. The man testified he was grabbed while driving Spacey in 2004 or 2005 to an annual gala that Elton John holds. Spacey presented work schedules and itineraries that showed he was filming far away those years. He said he only attended the event in 2001. The man said he could have had the dates wrong, but that he remembered he stopped spending time around Spacey after that incident. (More Kevin Spacey stories.)
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