Kevin Spacey touched the accuser in a “romantic” manner, according to the UK court

Kevin Spacey has denied grabbing a man’s genitals so hard while on the motorway that the man nearly crashed the car they were both traveling in.

Spacey, who is in the third week of his UK sexual assault trial, told the jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court that the alleged assault never happened. On Thursday morning, Spacey’s lawyer Patrick Gibbs KC asked the actor, who was sitting in the witness box, whether the “car crash” incident had taken place in the early 2000s , to which Spacey replied, “No. I wasn’t on a suicide mission in any of those years.”

She previously told the jury that her alleged accuser was “flirtatious” and that the touching was not “aggressive” or “violent”.

“I’m a big flirt,” Spacey replied when asked if he was a flirt himself. “We had a really fun time together,” the actor told the court. He added that the man said the experience was new to him and he didn’t want to go any further. “I respected that,” Spacey said.

Of another alleged victim, who claimed Spacey grabbed him “roughly” backstage at a charity event after he had previously made sexually aggressive comments, the actor said: “I never said any of the things he’s saying that I told him and I would never have in my life.”

Asked by Gibbs what Spacey made of the man’s allegations about being caught, the actor replied, “It’s crazy. It’s crazy because it never happened.”

Gibbs also questioned Spacey about the most serious charge, in which he is accused of drugging a man before performing oral sex on him while he was unconscious. Spacey said that when he was initially questioned by police, he did not recognize the name, photograph or allegations of the alleged victim. The actor said his initial thought was “This is someone who’s just ratting me out and I’ve faced him before.”

Originally, the alleged victim had believed the encounter had taken place in mid-August, which Spacey proved could not have been the case due to his frequent international travel that month. After a private investigator tracked down the complainant’s phone number, phone records showed that Spacey had made numerous phone calls and sent several text messages to the man on the night the incident was said to have occurred during the months following the alleged assault. including a 19-second call during the period the man claimed to have been unconscious.

Spacey also said he found an old phone in the storage closet that showed he had saved the man’s number on his phone.

The “House of Cards” actor’s account of the night is that the two men had a consensual sexual encounter in which Spacey performed oral sex with the complainant during what was “a very pleasant and lovely evening.” . Spacey said he then went to the bathroom and when he returned the man left “in a hurry.”

“Whether he immediately regretted it, I don’t know, I can speak for him,” Spacey said. “But something was strange, something strange and I was worried.”

Earlier, Spacey appeared relaxed and smiling in the witness box. After his lawyer’s opening statements, the 63-year-old actor told jurors he had an “excessive” amount of energy when he was younger and was advised to take drama classes.

Spacey attended the Julliard School of Drama in New York, he told the court. Asked when he started acting, he replied, “My mom would say when I was coming out.” His first jobs were small roles in Shakespeare In The Park shows in New York, he said, adding that he did three years of regional theater after that.

The court heard that his first film role was in 1985 at the age of 26 and his first significant role was in “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992).

Spacey, who denies 12 charges of sexual assault against four men, told the court about his time as artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theater and the connection he felt to its “remarkable history”. “I was crazy enough to throw my hat in the ring,” Spacey said of the role, adding that when he landed the lead in the hit Netflix drama “House of Cards” he began spending long periods of time away of the theater He stepped down from the Old Vic role in 2015.

More to come.