New York - (AFP) - Hollywood star Kevin Spacey has denied sexual assault charges brought against him by American actor Anthony Rapp, whose civil trial has begun in New York.

"I don't remember that I was with him at a private party or that I was with him in an apartment," Spacey said in response to his lawyer's questions, as confirmed by the plaintiff.

Spacey, who won two Oscars, was absent from the screen and from the stage, after he was one of the first artists to be tabled by the global “Me Too” wave since its inception in 2017 in the United States.

Actor Anthony Rapp, 51, who participates in the series “Star Trek: Discovery”, filed a lawsuit against Spacey in September 2020 accusing him of sexually assaulting him during a party in New York in 1986 when he was still fourteen years old.

Rap explained in his lawsuit that Spicey invited him to dinner with friends in his small apartment in Manhattan, and after the other guests left, he carried him in his arms while he was watching TV, and put him on a bed "before lying next to him and then on top of him."

During cross-examination on Monday, Spacey described his father, in public for the first time, as a "white supremacist" and a "neo-Nazi" who had no homosexuality or interest in theatre.

Spacey said he was "shocked, scared and confused" after the 2017 accusations, which were contained in an article by Anthony Rapp in "Buzzfeed News", and that he issued a public apology that day at the recommendation of his agents, which he regrets today.

"I learned the lesson, which is that one should never apologize for something one did not do," he said.

He added that he decided on that day to declare his homosexuality, after he had been thinking about the matter for more than a year, after he established himself professionally in the world of acting.
"I was accused of trying to change the subject, trying to distract, or confusing it with being gay, which was never my intention," he said tearfully, adding that he would never have done "anything to harm the gay community."
Spacey faces other lawsuits in both the United States and Britain. In London, he is on trial for sexually assaulting three men between March 2005 and April 2013 when he was artistic director of a theatre. The star pleaded not guilty to these charges last July.