Elton John has testified for the defense of Kevin Spacey in the sexual assault trial when the actor’s attorney tried to discredit a man who claimed the Oscar winner aggressively punched him in a car on the way to the singer’s home step packed
From
BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press
Jul 17, 2023 6:44 am ET
• 4 min reading
LONDON — Elton John testified briefly for the defense in Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault trial on Monday, when the actor’s attorney tried to discredit a man who claimed the Oscar winner had aggressively assaulted him while driving to the singer’s summer ball packed in the crotch.
John appeared before the London court via video feed from Monaco after his husband David Furnish testified that Spacey did not attend the annual party at their Windsor home the year the prosecutor said he was assaulted.
One of the alleged victims said he was driving Spacey to the White Tie & Tiara Ball in 2004 or 2005 when the actor grabbed him so hard he almost ran off the road.
Furnish supported Spacey’s own statement that he only attended the event in 2001. Furnish said he reviewed photos taken at the party from 2001 to 2005 and that Spacey only appeared in pictures that one year. He said that every year all guests are photographed.
John said the actor attended the party in the early 2000s and arrived after flying in on a private jet.
Furnish said Spacey’s performance was a surprise and he remembers it because it’s a big deal.
“He was an Oscar-winning actor and there was a lot of fanfare and excitement that he was at the ball,” Furnish said.
John said he only remembers Spacey coming to the gala once, saying the actor spent the night at her house after the event. He also confirmed that Spacey bought a Mini Cooper at that evening’s auction for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
The alleged victim said he may have gotten the year wrong, but he hasn’t forgotten the incident because he caught his breath and almost caused a car accident.
The time frame is important, however, as the man testified that Spacey had petted him for several years since the early 2000s. The incident was the last incident, he said, in which he threatened to hit the actor and then avoided him.
Spacey said the two were friends and had been romantically involved, but the man was straight, so the actor respected his desire to go no further. He said he was devastated when he learned the man had complained to police about him and said the man had “reinvented” what consensual touch was.
Furnish said he knew the accuser and described him as “charming,” the same term Spacey used.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen counts, including sexual assault, indecent assault and one count of inducing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
During the two-day testimony last week, the two-time Oscar winner insisted he never sexually assaulted three of the four accusers who described disturbing encounters between 2001 and 2013. The act of oral sex on an unconscious man.
Spacey dismissed one man’s fondling as “pure fantasy” and said he had consensual encounters with two others who later regretted it. He accepted the claims of a fourth man, saying he made a “clumsy pass” on a night of heavy drinking, but dismissed the description of “grabbing his crotch”.
John’s statement comes just over a week after he wrapped up his 50-year touring career with a show in Stockholm.
It’s the second time the “Rocket Man” star and Furnish have appeared before a London courtroom this year. The pair appeared at hearings as part of their phone hacking lawsuit with Prince Harry against the editor of the Chron newspaper.
The couple, the Duke of Sussex and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are among a group of plaintiffs claiming Associated Newspapers Ltd. of violating their privacy by intercepting voice messages and using unlawful methods to spy on them.
A judge rules on dismissing the case after the publisher said the group waited too long to assert their claims.