Actor <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/kevin-spacey/" target="_blank">Kevin Spacey</a> has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting four men following a trial in the UK. A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London acquitted Spacey, who turned 64 on Wednesday, of seven counts of sexual assault. He was also cleared of one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. Spacey had tears in his eyes as the verdicts were read out after more than 12 hours of deliberation. He mouthed “thank you” to the jury before they left the courtroom. The actor embraced his legal team and wiped tears from his eyes after trial judge Mr Justice Wall said he was free to leave the dock. "I am enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision," he said in a brief statement outside the court building. Spacey had told the court the accusations were “madness” and a “stab in the back”. The UK's Crown Prosecution Service said it respected the jury's verdict. The allegations covered the period from 2001 to 2013. Allegations emerged against Spacey in 2017 at the height of the #MeToo movement. The claims led to Spacey's character being written out of the TV drama <i>House of Cards </i>after Netflix cut ties with him. He was also removed from the film <i>All The Money In The World </i>after filming had finished. A separate civil trial in the US ended with a jury finding that <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/film/2022/10/21/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-trial/" target="_blank">Spacey did not abuse fellow actor Anthony Rapp</a> when Rapp was 14.
