Kevin Spacey appears in London court to faces sexual assault charges

The trial judge, Mr. Justice Wall, told the 14 jurors selected in Spacey’s marathon trial that they cannot let media coverage or the defendant’s fame influence their thoughts.

“Many of you know his name or have seen his films. That doesn’t disqualify you from sitting on this jury,” he said.

Criminal trials in England normally use 12 jurors, but two more have been chosen in this trial in case someone realizes they know an alleged victim or someone else connected with the case.

The judge also confirmed that trial won’t start properly until Friday morning. 

A court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook shows Spacey appearing at Southwark Crown Court in London today.

Elizabeth Cook / AP

Spacey stood in the dock to hear the 12 charges against him, a list that took several minutes for a court clerk to read out.

The charges relate to alleged sexual assault and indecent assault against four men between 2001 and 2013, including one count of causing someone to engage in sexual activity involving penetration against their consent, in 2008, which carries a potential life sentence. 

Spacey has just re-entered the courtroom.

The actor sat on one of the lawyers’ benches, not in the dock.

The trial is now expected to last more than four weeks.

It is also expected to have alternate jurors due to the foreseen extension.

Spacey will continue to be granted unconditional bail.

Kevin Spacey entered the courtroom at 10.31 a.m. and walked into the dock, the central area where criminal defendants sit in English trials.

Wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and pink tie he nodded to his defense counsel and took his seat, before waiting patiently for the proceedings to begin.

After the judge, Mr. Justice Mark Wall, came in, he rose to confirm his full name: Kevin Spacey Fowler.

The trial, expected to last at least four weeks and will test 12 charges against Spacey, will hear a mountain of evidence and have to go through many legal formalities and technical processes. There could be a lot of waiting for him. 

The trial was expected to begin at around 10 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET), but it does not appear to have gotten underway just yet.

In the minutes before 10 a.m., reporters were still lined up to get into the courtroom.

Patrick Smith / NBC News

The world’s media has descended on Southwark Crown Court for the first day of Kevin Spacey’s trial — a full hour before the hearing was due to start at 10 a.m. (5 a.m. ET).

Photographers, camera crews and reporters were all hoping to catch a glimpse of the 63-year-old Oscar winner.

The actor was flanked by a team of people as he arrived at Southwark Crown Court in London on Wednesday morning.

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

Spacey faces 12 sex offense charges relating to events that are alleged to have taken place from 2001 to 2013.

The actor first pleaded not guilty last July to five of those charges, four of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The latter charge which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

In January he pleaded not guilty to seven more sex offense charges, denying a number of alleged sexual assaults against one man from 2001 to 2004.

The British judge, Mark Wall, had agreed to join the seven-count indictment to an earlier five-count indictment.

Kevin Spacey appeared calm as he arrived at London's Southwark Crown Court Wednesday morning for the start of a four-week trial in which the Oscar-winning actor faces a dozen sexual offence charges.

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

Spacey, 63, has denied all the allegations.

The disgraced actor faces charges over offences alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2013. They include indecent and sexual assaults and an offence of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.