Kevin Spacey appeared today (Tuesday) as the first witness in his own defense proceedings in a civil trial in New York, where he is accused of sexual assault against the actor Anthony Rapp who claims that in 1986, when he was 14 years old, the 26-year-old Spacey sexually assaulted him.
Kevin Spacey will be prosecuted for sexually assaulting three men
After being accused of sexual assault: Kevin Spacey’s trial begins
In response to the first question from his lawyer, Chase Skolnick, Spacey said that the claims of the actor Anthony Rapp are not true, and this after Rapp’s lawyers finished presenting their case against Spacey. “I don’t see how he can claim that,” Spacey said, adding that he wasn’t sexually interested in rap because he was a minor. Spacey also discussed growing up with a father he described as a “neo-Nazi.”
Rapp, best known for his role in Star Trek: Discovery, claims that in 1986, Spacey, then 26, invited Rapp, then 14, to his Manhattan home, where he picked Rapp up, laid him on his bed, grabbed his butt his and pressed his crotch against Rapp’s body without his consent.
The 63-year-old “House of Cards” actor said he “had to listen to hours and hours and hours” of “hate speech” from his father, which instilled in him hatred and prejudice and bigotry. This, he said, also deterred him from publicly revealing that he was gay at an earlier stage.
As you may remember, on Monday, Spacey received his first victory in the trial, after Judge Lewis Kaplan accepted a defense request to dismiss a lawsuit for causing emotional distress.
Spacey, a two-time Academy Award winner, was one of the first high-profile names to come forward with allegations of sexual assault when the #MeToo campaign began in October 2017.