Elton John has testified at Kevin Spacey’s U.K. s*xual assault trial.
On Monday, the musician, 76, appeared via video link from Monaco to give evidence in the trial at Southwark Crown Court in London, which began on June 30.
The House of Cards alum is facing 12 charges of s*xual assault involving four men from 2001 to 2013, per The Guardian. Spacey denies all charges.
The “Candle in the Wind” songwriter was questioned about a claim that Spacey, 63, aggressively grabbed a man’s genitals as he was being driven to a “White Tie and Tiara” party at the singer’s house in 2004 or 2005, per Associated Press. John’s husband, David Furnish also appeared as a defense witness about the same claim earlier in the day.
John — who gave his name to the court as “Elton Hercules John” — said that Spacey had arrived at the charity ball via private jet.
According to The Guardian, prosecutor Christine Agnew asked the singer if he remembered Spacey attending the event, which raised funds for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, on one occasion in the early 2000s.
“Yes, because he arrived in white tie, he came on a private jet and came straight to the ball,” John responded, per the outlet.
Agnew then asked John to confirm if Spacey had flown in by private jet. “I believe so,” he said. “I don’t think he was wearing white tie on a commercial flight.”
“One never knows,” she replied.
Meanwhile, Furnish, 60, said Spacey had only attended the ball at John’s home in Windsor, England once — which Spacey himself testified happened in 2001, according to AP.
Furnish told the court that he had studied photographs taken of all the guests to attend their annual star-studded event over the years, and confirmed that Spacey had only attended once.
“On the night he attended the ball he stayed overnight at our house,” added John.
During the trial, jurors also heard how Spacey bought “the most expensive Mini Cooper ever” during an auction at the ball and then stored it at John’s home. Per The Guardian, John confirmed Spacey bought the car and was also asked if remembered Spacey coming to collect the Mini Cooper to which he responded: “I can’t remember him coming down after that, no.”
The possibility of the actor attending the ball on more than one occasion has formed part of the evidence at the trial, according to The Guardian.
To address this, Agnew asked Furnish if it was possible that some celebrities who attended the ball could have asked not to be photographed.
“To have a star of the magnitude of Kevin Spacey and to go to OK! [Magazine] and say he didn’t want to be photographed, that would be an impossible situation for the foundation to be in,” he added.
Furnish, who is John’s manager, added that “there was a lot of buzz and excitement” that Spacey had attended the gala that year as he had won Best Actor at the Academy Awards the previous year for his role in American Beauty.
The complainant, who John did not recognize when shown a photo, claimed that Spacey had grabbed his crotch so hard during the incident that he almost drove off the road, according to BBC News.
Denying the incident ever happened, however, Spacey said he was “not on a suicide mission” during the time the alleged incident took place, added BBC News.
While giving his defense during his trial, Spacey told the jury that touching the complainant was “in my mind romantic” and denied assaulting him, adding that he was “somewhat intimate” with the alleged victim.
Spacey also said he developed a “flirtatious relationship” with the man and touched the man in “romantic” and “intimate” ways.
“Yeah, I am a big flirt,” he told the court, per BBC News. “It did not happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way,” he continued “It was gentle … and it was, in my mind, romantic.”
Spacey then went on to say that he did not take things to the next level because the alleged victim “made it clear that he did not want to go any further.”
The actor also said he was “crushed” by the allegations made by the complainant. “I never thought the [name of man] I knew over 20 years later would stab me in the back,” he said.
