Updated June 13, 2022 at 1:24 PM ET
Authorities in England have charged actor Kevin Spacey with multiple counts of sexual assault. He has a court hearing scheduled for Thursday.
The charges were authorized in late May. A statement released at the time by Rosemary Ainslie, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division, said the service had authorized charging the actor with four counts of sexual assault against three men. The CPS also authorized charging him with one count of "causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent."
The authorization to charge Spacey followed an investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
The alleged assaults occurred in 2005, 2008 and 2013 in London and Gloucestershire.
Representatives for the actor have not responded to requests for comment.
In 2017, the actor Anthony Rapp publicly accused Spacey of sexually abusing him at a party in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey 26. Rapp has sued Spacey in federal court. Spacey has denied the allegations.
Spacey was also charged with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man in 2016, but prosecutors were forced to drop that charge after the alleged victim refused to testify.
In 2019 an anonymous masseur sued Spacey for allegedly assaulting him during a massage. The alleged victim died later that year and the actor settled with the accuser's family.
Spacey is an Oscar-winning actor and was the lead of the Netflix hit House of Cards, until he was written out of the show following the sexual assault allegations. He was set to star in the Ridley Scott directed thriller All the Money in the World when he was replaced at the last minute by Christopher Plummer.
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