Kevin Spacey’s Defense Tells Jury That Actor’s “Odd Life” Makes Him “Easy Target When Internet Turns Against You” in Closing Remarks

Kevin Spacey’s lawyer has delivered his closing remarks to the jury at the two-time Oscar winner’s criminal trial in London, arguing that, of the four claimants to have made accusations against the actor, three were lying and the fourth was intoxicated.

Patrick Gibbs gave his final comments Thursday at Southwark Crown Court, bringing to a close the four-week trial before the jury deliberates on the verdict.

In a speech that covered “fame, shame, money and memory,” Gibbs told the jurors that it is “not a crime to like sex, even if you’re famous, and it’s not a crime to have sex, even if you’re famous, and it’s not a crime to have casual sex,” according to Ireland Live. He added: “And it’s not a crime to have sex with someone of the same sex because it’s 2023 not 1823.”

Gibbs claimed that it was easy to lie about Spacey, who he said was “a man who is promiscuous, not publicly out, although everyone in the businesses knows he’s gay,” adding that he just wanted to be a “normal guy, or at least some of the time he does — to drink beer and laugh and smoke weed and sit in the front and spend time with younger people who he’s attracted to.”

Gibbs said: “It’s not my life, it’s not your life, perhaps it’s a bit of an odd life, but it’s a life that makes you an easy target when the internet turns against you and you’re tried by social media.”

In something of a name drop, Gibbs heaped praise on Elton John and David Furnish, who gave evidence earlier this week via video link from Monaco, saying that in doing so they had risked the “wrath of the internet,” and had “stood up and were counted in defense of a man who was universally canceled.”

In her closing speech, chief prosecutor Christine Agnew told jurors that the case was “about power and taking advantage of that power.”

She questioned the defense’s assertions that Spacey’s accusers were motivated by money and said that the trial was a result of his “aggressive, oppressive and intimidatory behavior.” As a “very famous and lauded actor,” she said he was “used to getting his own way,” adding that his behavior made his accusers “feel small; it made them feel diminished; it made them feel worthless.”

Spacey, 63, is facing nine charges from four different men, all dating between 2001 and 2013, a period when he was living and working in London.

When the trial began, he faced 12 charges, but a further charge of indecent assault was added. However, on Wednesday, four counts were dropped due to a “legal technicality.” But the most serious charge, causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, remains and carries with it a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.