Kevin Spacey has been found not guilty of sexual assault, but will his career recover?

Kevin Spacey cried as the verdict was read out. Source: AAP / Elizabeth Cook/PA/Alamy

Key Points

• Kevin Spacey has been acquitted of sexually assaulting four men between 2004 and 2013.
• The jury deliberated for more than 12 hours before a majority found him not guilty of all nine charges.
• A celebrity PR expert said Spacey faced an uphill struggle to return to his previous position as a top-ranking star.

Hollywood star Kevin Spacey has been found not guilty of carrying out multiple sexual assaults on four men.

After more than 12 hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted the Oscar-winning actor from the United States by a majority on nine charges, which he was accused of committing between 2004 and 2013 at a time when he was working at London’s Old Vic theatre.

Spacey, who turned 64 on Wednesday, began to cry and mouthed “thank you” to the nine men and three women jurors before wiping away tears with a tissue.

Later, on the steps of Southwark Crown Court, he said there was “a lot for him to process”.

“But I would like to say that I’m 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, and I am humbled by the outcome today,” he said.

During the four-week trial, prosecutors described the actor as a “sexual bully” who had aggressively groped three of the men and performed a sexual act on the fourth while he had passed out in Spacey’s London apartment.

Spacey said in evidence that the case against him was weak, and that the incidents, if they had occurred at all, were consensual.

He said he was promiscuous, a “big flirt” who had “casual, indiscriminate sexual encounters”.

In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it respected the jury’s verdict.

“The function of the CPS is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges,” it said.

Read the full article at SBS News.