Kevin Spacey Charged With Four Counts of Sexual Assault

UPDATED 5/26/22 4:00 PM ET: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has corrected an earlier statement to clarify that Kevin Spacey has not yet been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault. Rather, the CPS has authorized the charges against Spacey, and an official charge can only occur after the actor has been arrested in England or Wales.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorized for Kevin Spacey to be charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent,” the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on Thursday.

The CPS has been reviewing allegations against the House of Cards actor for the past year, ABC News reports. Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, released a statement Thursday, saying, "The CPS has authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men."

"He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent," added Ainslie. "The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation."

The first accuser reported being sexually assaulted by Spacey twice in London in March 2005. The second accuser alleges that Spacey assaulted him in August 2008, while the third reported an assault by Spacey in Gloucestershire in April 2013. The charge of "causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent" allegedly took place in London in August 2008, and was reported by the same person that accused Spacey of sexual assault at that time.

Sexual assault and misconduct allegations against Spacey first emerged in October 2017, when Anthony Rapp accused the actor of making sexual advances toward him in the 1980s, when Rapp was underage. Shortly after, additional incidents came to light when 20 people accused Spacey of misconduct that occurred between 1995 to 2013. As a result, Spacey was fired from his role in Netflix's House of Cards in November 2017.

In April 2018, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office investigated two allegations of sexual assault against Spacey, but after seven months announced they would not be pressing charges because of the statute of limitations. Spacey was also charged with indecent assault against a teenager in December 2018, but the case was thrown out after the accuser invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.

Spacey has mostly remained out of the spotlight since the allegations became public, but from 2018-2020, he uploaded a Christmas Eve video message in character as House of Cards' Frank Underwood. Spacey has also appeared in a few films since the scandal emerged, including two — Peter Five Eight and Gateway to the West — that were shopped around at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.