West News Wire: The Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey is now facing seven further sexual offense allegations from prosecutors in London.
The House of Cards and American Beauty star has been charged with “a number of sexual assaults against one man between 2001 and 2004,” the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on Wednesday.
The 63-year-old American actor was also given permission to face “one charge of compelling a person to engage in sexual behavior without consent.”
The seven fresh accusations relate to alleged acts allegedly perpetrated before and after 2003, when new legislation on sexual offenses went into effect, according to the CPS, which is in charge of prosecuting cases in England and Wales.
As a result, Spacey is now accused of 11 counts of sexual assault in Britain.
Spacey in July pleaded not guilty at London’s Old Bailey court to four charges of sexual assault against three men between 2005 and 2013 in London and Gloucestershire in western England.
None of the alleged victims can be identified under English law. Reporting restrictions prevent further details from being disclosed before trial.
Spacey voluntarily appeared at a London court when the first charges were brought and said he would defend himself against the charges.
Those allegations referred to a period when he was the artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theatre, between 2004 and 2015.
A New York court last month dismissed a $40m sexual misconduct lawsuit brought against Spacey by an actor, Anthony Rapp, who claimed the Hollywood star targeted him when he was 14.
A judge had ruled that Rapp had brought the case too late for a criminal charge.
Spacey’s Hollywood acting career ended five years ago when Rapp’s allegations emerged and he was dropped from the final season of House of Cards and other upcoming projects.
Allegations against him emerged in the wake of the #MeToo movement that saw numerous claims of sexual assault and harassment in the movie industry.
He has always denied allegations of sexual abuse.
In 2019, charges against the actor of indecent assault and sexual assault were dropped in Massachusetts.
