The Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey is to stand trial on Wednesday on sexual assault charges against four men.

The 63-year-old is due to appear in person at Southwark crown court for the four-week trial.

He faces 12 charges of sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent between 2001 and 2013. Spacey has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The case, listed under his full name Kevin Spacey Fowler, is being heard before Mr Justice Wall. Patrick Gibbs KC is defending Spacey, while Christine Agnew KC and Shauna Ritchie are prosecuting.

Not for the first time, the world’s media will descend on the south London court where celebrities including Boris Becker and Rolf Harris have been tried in recent years.

In May last year, the Crown Prosecution Service authorised four counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent against Spacey. The charges related to alleged offences against three men – now in their 30s and 40s – in England between 2005 and 2013. Spacey pleaded not guilty to the charges at the Old Bailey in July.

In November, Spacey was charged with seven additional offences – three of indecent assault, three of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent – against a fourth man between 2001 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty to the charges at a hearing in January.

Spacey was artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015. He grew up in California but lived in London for more than a decade, previously saying the city had become his home. He now lives in Baltimore in the US.

Spacey has won two Oscars – the best supporting actor award for The Usual Suspects in 1996 and for best actor in 2000 for American Beauty. In recent years, he was best known for his role playing the fictional US president Frank Underwood in Netflix’s House of Cards. He also appeared in the movies Seven, LA Confidential and Baby Driver.

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