Actor Kevin Spacey goes on trial in London this week on sex offence charges

LONDON: Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey arrived at a London court on Wednesday for the start of his four-week trial on a dozen sex offence charges.

Spacey, 63, denies allegations of historic offences committed against four men which are said to have taken place between 2001 and 2013.

He made no comments to media on arriving at the court.

The charges against Spacey include indecent and sexual assaults and a more serious offence of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

His trial at London's Southwark Crown Court is due to get underway on Wednesday with the selection of the jury, although the prosecution case may not formally begin until later this week or next week.

Spacey, who won Oscars for best actor in "American Beauty" (1999) and best supporting actor in "The Usual Suspects" (1995), spent over a decade working in London as artistic director for the British capital's Old Vic theatre from 2004 to 2015.

British prosecutors first revealed he faced charges in May 2022, saying he was accused of five assaults between March 2005 and April 2013 - four in London and one in Gloucestershire in the west of England. They involved one man who is now in his 40s and two men now in their 30s.

Last November the Crown Prosecution Service authorised a further seven charges involving sex assaults on one man between 2001 and 2004.

Spacey, once one of Hollywood's biggest stars, has largely disappeared from public view since being accused of sexual misconduct six years ago.

In the United States last October, Spacey defeated a sexual abuse case brought against him in a civil court after jurors in Manhattan found his accuser did not prove his claim that the actor made an unwanted sexual advance on him when he was 14.