Elton John testifies for Kevin Spacey defence in U.K. sexual assault trial – National | 24CA News
Elton John briefly testified Monday for the protection at Kevin Spacey‘s sexual assault trial as the actor’s lawyer tried to discredit a person who claimed the Oscar winner aggressively grabbed his crotch whereas driving to the singer’s summer time ball.
John appeared within the London courtroom by video hyperlink from Monaco after his husband, David Furnish, testified that Spacey didn’t attend the annual get together at their Windsor residence the 12 months the accuser stated he was attacked.
One of the alleged victims stated he was driving Spacey to the White Tie & Tiara Ball in 2004 or 2005 when the actor grabbed him so forcefully that he virtually ran off the highway.
Furnish supported Spacey’s personal testimony that he solely attended the occasion in 2001. Furnish stated he had reviewed pictures taken on the get together from 2001 to 2005 and Spacey solely appeared in photographs that one 12 months. He stated all friends have been photographed annually.
John stated the actor attended the get together within the early 2000s and arrived after flying in on a personal jet.
Furnish stated Spacey’s look was a shock and he remembered it as a result of it was a giant deal.
“He was an Oscar-winning actor and there was a lot of buzz and excitement that he was at the ball,” Furnish stated.
John stated he solely remembered Spacey coming as soon as to the gala and stated the actor spent the evening at their home after the occasion. He additionally confirmed that Spacey purchased a Mini Cooper on the public sale held that evening for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
The alleged sufferer stated he could have gotten the 12 months flawed, however that he wouldn’t have forgotten the incident as a result of it took his breath away and he virtually crashed the automotive.
The timeline, nonetheless, is necessary as a result of the person testified that Spacey had fondled him over a number of years starting within the early 2000s. The incident was the ultimate event, he stated, when he threatened to hit the actor after which averted him.
Spacey stated the 2 have been buddies and so they engaged in some romantic contact however the man was straight, so the actor revered his needs to not go additional. He stated he was crushed when he discovered the person had complained to police about him and stated the person had “reimagined” what had been consensual touching.
Furnish stated he was conversant in the accuser and described him as “charming,” the identical time period Spacey used.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not responsible to a dozen costs that embody sexual and indecent assault counts and one rely of inflicting an individual to interact in penetrative sexual exercise with out consent.
Over two days of testimony final week, the two-time Academy Award winner insisted that he by no means sexually assaulted three of the 4 accusers who described disturbing encounters between 2001 and 2013. The acts allegedly escalated from undesirable touching to aggressive fondling to at least one occasion of performing oral intercourse act on an unconscious man.
Spacey dismissed one man’s fondling claims as “pure fantasy” and stated he shared consensual encounters with two others who later regretted it. He accepted the claims of a fourth man, saying he had made a “clumsy pass” throughout an evening of heavy ingesting, however he took exception to the “crotch-grabbing” characterization.
John’s testimony comes simply over per week after he wrapped up his 50-year touring profession with a present in Stockholm.
It’s the second time the Rocket Man star and Furnish have made appearances in a London courtroom this 12 months. The two confirmed up at hearings of their telephone hacking lawsuit with Prince Harry towards the writer of the Daily Mail newspaper.
The couple, the Duke of Sussex and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are amongst a bunch of claimants that allege Associated Newspapers Ltd. violated their privateness by intercepting voicemails and utilizing illegal strategies to listen in on them.
A choose is deciding whether or not to throw out the case after the writer stated the group waited too lengthy to deliver their claims.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
