Kevin Spacey was “tried by social media” and “canceled” after he was accused of sexual assaults, Southwark Crown Court docket heard as we speak because the Oscar-winner’s protection rested its case.
The 63-year-old, standing trial beneath his full identify Kevin Spacey Fowler, is charged with 9 sexual offences regarding 4 males which have been have been allegedly dedicated between 2001 and 2013.
The 2-time Academy Award winner leaned ahead in his chair within the dock and watched intently by way of the glass as his defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC gave a closing speech in London.
“What the defense suggests is that three people have lied and they have lied in ways and for reasons which, ultimately, will only ever be known to themselves,” stated Gibbs, who instructed the fourth complainant was intoxicated.
He mentioned matters together with “fame, shame, money and memory” and instructed jurors: “It’s not a criminal offense to love intercourse, even if you happen to’re well-known, and it’s not a criminal offense to have intercourse, even if you happen to’re well-known, and it’s not a criminal offense to have informal intercourse.
“And it’s not a crime to have sex with someone of the same sex because it’s 2023 not 1823.”
He challenged the prosecution’s declare that there was a “pattern of similarity” between the accusers as a result of three declare Spacey “grabbed” them by the crotch, a time period Spacey beforehand instructed the courtroom he “objected” to.
Gibbs stated: “With every allegation that’s discredited, the likelihood, the fact, that false allegations, even apparently convincing false allegations, actually do occur.
“Especially where fame, money, sex, secrets, shame and sexual confusion are all in the mix.”
He instructed the jury it was “easy” to lie convincingly, particularly when it’s about somebody corresponding to Spacey, who he described as: “A man who is promiscuous, not publicly out, although everyone in the businesses knows he’s gay, who wants to be just a normal guy, or at least some of the time he does – to drink beer and laugh and smoke weed and sit in the front and spend time with younger people who he’s attracted to.”
“Perhaps it’s a bit of an odd life”
He added: “It’s not my life, it’s not your life, maybe it’s a little bit of an odd life however it’s a life that makes you a simple goal when the web turns towards you and also you’re tried by social media.
“That’s when these claims were taken to the police, when it was, I suggest, only too easy to do and the prospects of a pay-off from the bandwagon were at their most irresistible.”
Reflecting on the proof Spacey gave in the course of the trial, Gibbs urged the jury to “filter” out his movie star and “try to get through to the real person behind that.”
Gibbs instructed jurors ought to dismiss as “fiction” the allegation put to them by the prosecution that Spacey made a person “almost come off the road” after an alleged “painful” crotch seize as he drove the actor to a lavish showbiz social gathering at Elton John’s Windsor dwelling within the early 2000s.
The Rocketman singer appeared for the protection alongside husband David Furnish earlier this week, and Gibbs praised John and Furnish for risking the “wrath of the internet” after they gave proof through video hyperlink from Monaco on Monday. He stated they “stood up and were counted in defense of a man who was universally canceled” and added “you need look no further for bravery than that, I submit”.
Gibbs stated a lot of the man’s claims are “so vague” and “all happened in private” that they’re “impossible to contradict” and “what you’re left with is one person’s words against another years later.”
“But he did advance one testable allegation and you have seen it tested and my submission to you about it is that it turned out to be a complete fabrication,” he added.
“It’s that dramatic centerpiece of the Crown’s case about (this complainant). It’s the last stunning episode. It’s the crotch seize.
“And that’s turned out on the evidence, I suggest, to be a fiction.”
He stated this alleged lie was designed to “dramatize and dignify a reimagining long after the events of all that really happened between those two men.”
He added: “However the [prosecution] now say about that allegation, nicely dates don’t matter, they are saying. And my retort is nicely they might say that as a result of not one of the dates they’ve sequentially alighted upon and invited you to make sure about work.
“Every single date has been disproven.”
Spacey pleaded not responsible in January to a few counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault and one rely of inflicting an individual to have interaction in sexual exercise with out consent. He additionally beforehand denied 4 additional prices of sexual assault and one rely of inflicting an individual to have interaction in penetrative sexual exercise with out consent. An additional cost of indecent assault, another rely, was added mid-trial – taking the overall variety of alleged offences listed on the indictment to 13.
On Wednesday, the 4 indecent assault prices, which have been all various counts, have been struck off by the decide, on account of a “legal technicality” and never because of the prosecution abandoning any allegation.
The jury was directed to focus on what occurred and whether or not it was a criminal offense, and never be involved with exact dates when issues occurred. The trial continues.