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Kevin Spacey cleared of sexually assaulting four men (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by Schedar to c/news
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Jury at Southwark crown court finds Oscar-winning actor, 64, not guilty after four-week trial

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[–] Lowbird 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Spacey had previously denied 12 charges – seven sexual assaults, three indecent assaults, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

A further charge of indecent assault was added mid-trial, taking to 13 the total number of alleged offences listed on the indictment.

Last Wednesday, the four indecent assault charges were struck off by the judge because of a “legal technicality”.

I don't know anything about this, and I wish the article went into a lot more detail about the accusations and why they were found not credible, especially since there were so many from separate people.

Like, did they find some evidence against the accusers, like happened with the Michael Jackson cases iirc, or did they just decide the accusers didn't present enough evidence or witnesses to be believed?

Spacey might well be innocent, of course. I just worry because society is often disinclined to take male sexual assault victims seriously, and I feel like if the alleged victims were female the press would (since "Me Too") at least give them a little more coverage than this? This article feels like it has a "the accused is found not guilty, and everyone knows that sexual assault cases are always decided correctly, so he is 100% innocent and we can all wash our hands of this" vibe, but meanwhile Bill Crosby walks free, so I can't personally trust it with so little information.

Especially not when it's about a rich, powerful man with a huge fanbase, aka exactly the type of person nobody wants to believe would be a predator (and maybe he isn't! But I need more info here, darn it!)

Ah well. I'll google more later I guess.

At least it doesn't seem to have turned into a media hellscape circus like what happened to Amber Heard.

[–] StantonVitales 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I concur. It feels like Spacey is gonna just have his name cleared now for reasons we know not, but Marilyn Manson (for example) will forever be seen as a vile monster even though Evan Rachel Wood and Illma Gore are very clearly insane and creating this situation out of thin air

(Little about me to go with my divisive comment; I'm a victim of childhood SA, I believed ERW for a full year on principle before looking into the evidence, at which time it became inescapably obvious that she's a psychopath who's doing the absolute most with absolutely nothing based on reality behind it)

[–] Gaywallet 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

clearly insane

psychopath

You should probably avoid this language when talking about SA, even if you're referring to people you believe are lying about being victims of SA. I don't know enough about the above individuals to weigh in on whether they are trustworthy or not, and I'm betting most people running across this comment also don't have the level of knowledge necessary to parse this message without getting tripped up by the language you're using which may be especially triggering if they are also victims of SA.

[–] StantonVitales 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

They forged an FBI document using a real agent's name in order to SWAT his house (the actual agent whose name they used has publicly stated that she had nothing to do with this case and never wrote that document), gave ERW's ex the agent's name with a fake number as the only contact to discuss custody of their son after illegally absconding to Tennessee with him under the pretense of being threatened by MM, filled said toddler child's head with so much fear of MM that he began drawing pictures of "the evil man" who is the reason he's not allowed to see his father anymore, gave several women a checklist of abuses to create a cohesive story and told them that a) just because they don't remember it happening doesn't mean it didn't and b) they're hurting the other women's chance for justice if they don't agree that it happened to them, just for a few examples. I think I'm using those words perfectly appropriately.

Claiming that someone is lying about SA without listing evidence could in and of itself be triggering, discussing SA at all could be triggering, one would assume that entering a thread about SA could be triggering. I'm not sure I agree that referring to these two as psychologically unhinged would be more triggering than any of the other content of this thread, or more specifically any of the rest of the content of my post accusing them of making it up. Incidentally, I'm using the term psychopath literally, not colloquially;

Individuals with psychopathy (Antisocial Personality Disorder) display a decrease of emotional response and lack of empathy with others. This individual might possess a superficial charm but deep down is manipulative and impulsive. A psychopath is characterized by a lack of regard for the rights and feelings of others, controlled and manipulative behavior, the absence of shame, and an inability to form emotional relationships (Morin, 2021). They are incapable of loyalty to individuals, groups or social values. They are grossly selfish, callous, irresponsible, impulsive and unable to feel guilt or to learn from experience

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[–] peanuts4life 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Interesting! I didn't follow this case, but I do remember Kevin spacey posting a very strange video a ways back in which he acted... Very creepy about the situation.

Anyone following the case have any thoughts?

[–] fear@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I remember seeing those videos when they came out, and they were unsettling to say the least. I definitely have my thoughts on the case, but I think by far my strongest thought is that it's not up to randos like me to decide. I hate what the #metoo movement morphed into. There's someone else in here calling other SA survivors insane psychopaths, and this is the norm now. It's like most people think it's black and white, and that you can tell who's guilty or innocent from a couple of youtube videos. The reality is that unless you're the accuser or the accused, you don't know. And unless you're the judge and jury, it's not up to you nor should it be.

[–] Tigbitties@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He's still a colossal asshole and I doubt he'll ever do anything noteworthy for the rest of his life.

[–] upstream 2 points 1 year ago

People’s acting careers have been killed by less.