The prosecuting lawyer Christine Agnew told the jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court that Spacey may have got a “sexual thrill” from preying on other men.
Spacey “does not respect personal boundaries or space” and “delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable, a sexual bully,” Agnew said, according to the Press Association, a British wire agency.
Spacey, 63, denies the 12 charges against him and has previously said he hopes to make a career comeback once he has established his innocence and the London trial is over.
The Oscar-winning actor’s trial officially got underway earlier this week with jury selection. The jury will hear from the four men during the trial, which is expected to last three to four weeks.
“None of the men wanted to be touched by Kevin Spacey Fowler in a sexual way, but he doesn’t seem to have cared very much for their feelings,” Agnew said. “He did what he wanted to do for his own personal sexual gratification.”
The prosecutor warned the jury that they might feel “star struck or overwhelmed that you are part of the jury to try such a famous person but … you must keep yourself grounded and true to the oath that you have taken.”
Spacey arrived at the Southwark Crown Court more than two hours before his case started. He traveled to the court in a London black cab and wore a gray suit and gold tie.
Spacey has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him. They include sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
The alleged incidents are said to have taken place in London and Gloucestershire between 2001 and 2013. During much of that time, Spacey was the artistic director of London’s Old Vic theater, a prestigious playhouse.
Spacey was one of America’s most celebrated actors before allegations of sexual assault emerged at the height of the #MeToo movement. He won Oscars for the films “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty.” His turn as Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama “House of Cards” made him a household name. Shortly after he was first accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, he was dropped by that show and cut from Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World,” a film that was completed at the time but then reshot with actor Christopher Plummer.
In a rare interview, Spacey told Germany’s ZEIT magazine that the media had turned him into a “monster” and that “a lot of people are very afraid that if they support me, they will be canceled.”
He added that there are “people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London. The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward.”