By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) -Kevin Spacey on Friday described an allegation he grabbed a man's crotch as "absolute bollocks", in combative exchanges with prosecutors at the Oscar-winning actor's sexual assault trial.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court to 12 charges of sexual offences allegedly committed against four men in Britain between 2001 and 2013.
The offences allegedly took place at a time when he was mainly living and working in Britain, including from 2003 as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.
The four accusers have said Spacey aggressively groped them and, in the case of one complainant, performed oral sex on him while he was passed out in Spacey's flat.
The two-time Academy Award winner was questioned on Friday by prosecutor Christine Agnew, who asked Spacey about a complainant who alleges Spacey painfully grabbed his crotch like "a cobra" in the mid-2000s.
Spacey said the man had "made up his entire story from beginning to end".
He also described the allegation as "absolute bollocks", using a British slang term for testicles and for something which is untrue.
Agnew replied: "Yep - because that's exactly where you did grab him, isn't it?"
Spacey asked: "Did he accuse me of grabbing his bollocks?" He then said: "I didn't."
The American actor was also asked why he thought the accuser was making up his allegations. Spacey replied: "Money, money and then money."
Agnew earlier asked Spacey whether he regularly used "the crotch grab" when he met men for the first time.
Spacey said he did not, adding: "It is the term grabbing a crotch or groping a crotch that I object to."
He said he was "an affectionate person" and would hug people when he met them, but that he would not pursue someone if they did not appear to be interested in him.
Spacey also said: "I, at times, was promiscuous and I had casual, indiscriminate sexual encounters."
Agnew asked Spacey if he felt a "frisson of excitement" if he propositioned straight men. The actor said: "I don't know if somebody's gay or straight by looking at them."
The actor was asked about one of the four complainants, who alleges Spacey gave him an "awkward" hug, kissing his neck and then grabbed his crotch, after he went with friends to where Spacey was staying near Oxford in central England.
Spacey has admitted making a "clumsy pass" at the man, but denied sexually assaulting him.
"I definitely misread the signs that I thought (the man) was sending, I accept that," Spacey said on Friday.
Spacey added that his contact with the man was not "what you would call a grab or a grope - it is a gentle touch".
Agnew asked if there had been "the beginning of a squeeze" of the man's genitals, which Spacey said there may have been.
Spacey described his encounters with two of the other complainants as "consensual interactions", adding: "If they went further than they wanted, they didn't tell me."
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Mark Heinrich)
