This archive report was first published on 7 July 2019.
Actor Kevin Spacey, 59, is facing multiple allegations of sexual assault in the UK, with six men lodging complaints between 1996 and 2013.
According to the Metropolitan Police Service, the allegations were made to Scotland Yard, London's police force, and were voluntarily investigated in the US by officers from the Met's Complex Case Team in May.
Spacey is also facing criminal charges of indecent assault and battery in Massachusetts following an alleged incident in July 2016, in which an accuser said Spacey bought him 'multiple alcoholic beverages' before he then forcibly touched and fondled the then-18-year-old's genitals.
Spacey has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is expected to attend a hearing related to the case in Massachusetts on Monday.
On Friday, the accuser in the Massachusetts case dropped a civil lawsuit he had filed against Spacey a week earlier, which made the same allegations and sought damages for mental distress.
At issue in Monday's pretrial hearing is the cell phone on which the accuser texted his girlfriend and sent a video during the alleged assault. The prosecution says it obtained data from the phone, which it shared with the defense, and then the phone was returned to the man's family. Spacey's defense team wants to examine the phone itself, claiming that exculpatory evidence may have been deleted before it was given to police and prosecutors.
