Kevin Spacey Found Not Guilty on 9 Charges of Sexual Assault

Actor Kevin Spacey was found not guilty on 9 charges of sexual assault by a jury in London on Wednesday.

Three male accusers had alleged that Spacey had touched them inappropriately and another said he woke up to find Spacey performing oral sex on him.

Spacey had argued that two of the encounters, including the one with the sleeping man, a young actor who had sought Spacey’s counsel and mentorship, had been consensual. He called another’s allegations “pure fantasy,” and professed to not remember the fourth, though he admitted to remembering having touched another man’s crotch one drunken night.

In a statement delivered outside of the court on Wednesday, Spacey thanked the jury, his legal team, and building staff:

I would like to say that I’m enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision, and I am humbled by the outcome today. I also want to thank the staff inside this courthouse, the security and all of those who took care of us every single day, my legal team, Evan Longstein and Lucy for being here every day, and that’s all I have to say for the moment. Thank you very much.

The Usual Suspects and House of Cards star had previously won a civil trial in New York City last year, when a jury found that he was not not liable for battery against Anthony Rapp, an actor who accused Spacey of sexually assaulting him when Rapp was just 14 years old in the 1980s.

It was Rapp’s allegations, first made public in 2017, that initiated the wave off a story that eventually saw 15 others accuse Spacey of wrongdoing.

At the time, Spacey professed not to remember such an incident, but conceded that “if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”

He was widely criticized for quickly pivoting to announcing that “this story has encouraged me to address other things about my life,” and that was choosing “to live as a gay man.”

In 2018, he was again criticized for a bizarre video in which he reprised his role as House of Cards‘ Frank Underwood, decried his “impeachment without a trial,” and declared “So we’re not done, no matter what anyone says. And besides, I know what you want. You want me back.”

Watch Spacey’s post-verdict statement above via CNN.