American actor Kevin Spacey to avoid retrial in the United Kingdom after reaching a settlement with three men who accused him of sexual assault and were suing him in civil proceedings.
The 66-year-old Hollywood star was acquitted in 2023 by a London court of charges of sexual assault brought against him by four men, following a criminal trial lasting several weeks. Two of them sued the actor in civil proceedings, as well as a third and new plaintiff, the British actor Ruari Cannon, who had waived his right to anonymity as part of this new procedure.
Kevin Spacey, Oscar winner for “American Beauty” and “Usual Suspects,” has always proclaimed his innocence. A trial had been set for October 2026, but the plaintiffs reached an agreement with the actor, according to the order suspending the proceedings issued by a High Court judge in London, cited by the PA news agency.
“Mutual consent”
“By mutual consent, it is ordered that all subsequent proceedings initiated against the defendant in these cases be suspended,” according to this decision, which does not detail the “settlement terms”, particularly financial, agreed between the three men and Kevin Spacey. These three men accused the actor of having sexually assaulted them between 2004 and 2015, when he was the artistic director of the Old Vic theater in London.
Contacted by AFP, the lawyers for the plaintiffs and Kevin Spacey did not respond. Accusations of sexual assault against the Hollywood star emerged in 2017 at the start of the #MeToo movement, when Kevin Spacey was at the height of his fame, starring in the hit Netflix series “House of Cards”. Since then, he has almost disappeared from the screens.
