LONDON: Actor Kevin Spacey told British police he had never groped anyone but said he had had numerous one-night stands with people from the theater world and might have a made some clumsy passes at people, a London court heard on Wednesday.
The Oscar-winner is on trial at Southwark Crown Court where he denies a dozen charges of historic sex offenses against four men, then aged in their 20s and 30s, committed in Britain between 2001 and 2013.
The accusers have said the 63-year-old had aggressively groped them or in one case performed an act of sex while the complainant was passed out, with the prosecution describing him as a sexual bully.
On Wednesday, the prosecution read statements to the jury that Spacey had provided to detectives during five interviews carried out in New York and London when the separate accusations were put to him.
In these, the US actor said he had no recollection of the man who accused him of making crude sexual comments to him before grabbing his crotch through his trousers while at a charity event in a London theater.
“I certainly did not grab anyone … let alone with force,” he said in his statement. He said the man had approached his lawyers seeking damages over the alleged incident.
Spacey likewise said he could not remember the second accuser, an aspiring actor, who says he woke in the actor’s London apartment to find he was being assaulted.
“I’m certain that I did not attempt to perform … on anyone who fell asleep in my apartment,” Spacey’s statement said, adding he had never performed any unconsented acts.
In his statement he did say he had had consensual sex with some aspiring actors, and that he had hosted many social gatherings in his apartment which “vast” numbers of people would have attended.
He said he had had “numerous consensual one-night stands with members of the theater world in my property,” and could not rule out that the man had been there and there had been sexual contact. His statement also said the man’s lawyers had contacted him seeking a payment of more than 450,000 pounds.
As regards the third alleged victim, a man he met in a pub near Oxford in central England who says the actor assaulted him later at the nearby property where the actor was staying, Spacey said it was “entirely possible and indeed likely” he might have made a clumsy pass at someone at some time.
“I have certainly never attempted to grab anyone’s crotch while making a pass,” he said, but said he might have touched someone if he thought they were consenting.
Spacey told police he was “baffled and deeply hurt” that the final accuser, a driver who says Spacey groped him about 12 times, had made his claims.
He suggested it was either to seek financial gain in light of the other allegations or because the man was embarrassed to admit the truth and was “re-imagining” their time together.
Spacey is expected to give evidence in person when the defense begins its case on Thursday.
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Kevin Spacey says he never groped victims, UK court hears
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Kevin Spacey says he never groped victims, UK court hears
- The Oscar-winner is on trial at Southwark Crown Court where he denies a dozen charges
- The accusers have said the 63-year-old had aggressively groped them
From AI to Starlink: how drone tech is reshaping war in Ukraine
KYIV: As the war in Ukraine drags into its fifth year, drones have come to completely dominate the front line — a transformation in modern warfare that is being watched around the world.
Here is a look at the technology that is reshaping the war, four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion by pouring tanks and men over the border:
- Kill zone -
Ranging from cheap commercial devices designed for civilian use to explosive-packed miniature aircraft, drones are responsible for up to 80 percent of battlefield damage, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said.
“Modern warfare is now impossible without drones,” Koleso, a Ukrainian infantry soldier, told AFP in eastern Ukraine.
The front line has been transformed into a “kill zone” stretching up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) deep — “an area between two sides where nothing can survive because it’s constantly monitored by drones,” military expert Kateryna Bondar explained.
Soldiers can only operate there in small groups, moving fast and with their eyes fixed to the sky, hoping to stay undetected.
Heavy pieces of artillery, as well as sluggish tanks and armored vehicles, are too slow and visible — making them easy targets for both sides.
Unwilling to send more men that necessary into the kill zone, Ukrainian troops use ground drones to ferry supplies to dangerous areas and to evacuate wounded soldiers.
- Fibre optics -
Maintaining a stable connection between the drone and its operator, controlling it remotely, is a crucial task.
“That’s where the real race is happening — communications and connections,” Bondar said.
Initially, most drones operated on a radio connection.
But they proved vulnerable to electronic warfare — the practice of jamming and intercepting enemy craft, causing them to drop out of the sky or lose connection to the operator.
Russia has turned to drones controlled by ultra-thin fiber-optic cables, largely immune to electronic jamming.
In scenes that resemble a dystopian sci-fi movie, their widespread use has left swathes of frontline cities and fields entombed in webs of cable.
- Starlink -
In another alternative to radio control, Ukrainians have begun attaching Starlink terminals to drones.
This allows them to fly using a satellite Internet connection.
“We need to fly far away with a stable video signal and stable control,” said Phoenix, a commander from Ukraine’s Lasar Group, a pioneer in the use of Starlink.
Russian troops soon started copying, until Ukraine pushed Elon Musk last month to disable unauthorized Russian terminals.
The move disrupted both Russian and Ukrainian systems, military observers said.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said the switch-off likely helped enable a localized, but rapid, Ukrainian advance in the southern Zaporizhzhia region in early February.
- Air defenses -
The spread of drones has forced a revamp of air defense systems.
Firing advanced missiles — which can cost millions — to down drones worth just a fraction of that is too expensive a response.
Alongside jamming, Ukraine has also developed cheap interceptor drones built specially to destroy other craft mid-air.
“We opened the chapter of the war of drones with drones,” said Marko Kushnir of General Cherry, a leading interceptor drone maker.
Roads near the front have been equipped with protective nets attempting to stop attacking drones, while trucks fitted with anti-drone cages and drone jammers speed along them.
Machine guns are also a last resort to shoot down drones from the sky.
Ukraine’s Western allies have increasingly looked to Kyiv’s experience after Russian drones made repeat incursions into European airspace in recent months.
- AI -
Engineers are racing to equip drones with artificial intelligence to improve their performance.
Ukrainian firms such as The Fourth Law (TFL) say they have developed so-called terminal guidance, which allows AI to take control of a device in the final moments before impact.
This is meant to improve the accuracy of strikes, especially as connection is typically lost in the final moments before a hit.
“Russia and China are also developing such technologies, and if our countries don’t... we will lose,” said TFL’s Maksym Savanevskyi.
But full autonomy remains some way off.
“AI is performing a helping function rather than substituting human,” said Bondar, the military expert.
“I thought they could simply remove people from battle equipment, that it could be fully automated. That’s a naive view,” said former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, now head of SwiftBeat, a company that supplies AI drones to Ukraine’s army.
“For the foreseeable future, you’ll have drones first, people second,” he told a conference in Kyiv.
All the way on the eastern front, Koleso said foot soldiers would always remain relevant.
“Until you plant the flag yourself, with your own hands, and take the position, it cannot be considered yours,” he said.
Here is a look at the technology that is reshaping the war, four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion by pouring tanks and men over the border:
- Kill zone -
Ranging from cheap commercial devices designed for civilian use to explosive-packed miniature aircraft, drones are responsible for up to 80 percent of battlefield damage, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said.
“Modern warfare is now impossible without drones,” Koleso, a Ukrainian infantry soldier, told AFP in eastern Ukraine.
The front line has been transformed into a “kill zone” stretching up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) deep — “an area between two sides where nothing can survive because it’s constantly monitored by drones,” military expert Kateryna Bondar explained.
Soldiers can only operate there in small groups, moving fast and with their eyes fixed to the sky, hoping to stay undetected.
Heavy pieces of artillery, as well as sluggish tanks and armored vehicles, are too slow and visible — making them easy targets for both sides.
Unwilling to send more men that necessary into the kill zone, Ukrainian troops use ground drones to ferry supplies to dangerous areas and to evacuate wounded soldiers.
- Fibre optics -
Maintaining a stable connection between the drone and its operator, controlling it remotely, is a crucial task.
“That’s where the real race is happening — communications and connections,” Bondar said.
Initially, most drones operated on a radio connection.
But they proved vulnerable to electronic warfare — the practice of jamming and intercepting enemy craft, causing them to drop out of the sky or lose connection to the operator.
Russia has turned to drones controlled by ultra-thin fiber-optic cables, largely immune to electronic jamming.
In scenes that resemble a dystopian sci-fi movie, their widespread use has left swathes of frontline cities and fields entombed in webs of cable.
- Starlink -
In another alternative to radio control, Ukrainians have begun attaching Starlink terminals to drones.
This allows them to fly using a satellite Internet connection.
“We need to fly far away with a stable video signal and stable control,” said Phoenix, a commander from Ukraine’s Lasar Group, a pioneer in the use of Starlink.
Russian troops soon started copying, until Ukraine pushed Elon Musk last month to disable unauthorized Russian terminals.
The move disrupted both Russian and Ukrainian systems, military observers said.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said the switch-off likely helped enable a localized, but rapid, Ukrainian advance in the southern Zaporizhzhia region in early February.
- Air defenses -
The spread of drones has forced a revamp of air defense systems.
Firing advanced missiles — which can cost millions — to down drones worth just a fraction of that is too expensive a response.
Alongside jamming, Ukraine has also developed cheap interceptor drones built specially to destroy other craft mid-air.
“We opened the chapter of the war of drones with drones,” said Marko Kushnir of General Cherry, a leading interceptor drone maker.
Roads near the front have been equipped with protective nets attempting to stop attacking drones, while trucks fitted with anti-drone cages and drone jammers speed along them.
Machine guns are also a last resort to shoot down drones from the sky.
Ukraine’s Western allies have increasingly looked to Kyiv’s experience after Russian drones made repeat incursions into European airspace in recent months.
- AI -
Engineers are racing to equip drones with artificial intelligence to improve their performance.
Ukrainian firms such as The Fourth Law (TFL) say they have developed so-called terminal guidance, which allows AI to take control of a device in the final moments before impact.
This is meant to improve the accuracy of strikes, especially as connection is typically lost in the final moments before a hit.
“Russia and China are also developing such technologies, and if our countries don’t... we will lose,” said TFL’s Maksym Savanevskyi.
But full autonomy remains some way off.
“AI is performing a helping function rather than substituting human,” said Bondar, the military expert.
“I thought they could simply remove people from battle equipment, that it could be fully automated. That’s a naive view,” said former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, now head of SwiftBeat, a company that supplies AI drones to Ukraine’s army.
“For the foreseeable future, you’ll have drones first, people second,” he told a conference in Kyiv.
All the way on the eastern front, Koleso said foot soldiers would always remain relevant.
“Until you plant the flag yourself, with your own hands, and take the position, it cannot be considered yours,” he said.
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