House of Cards and Superman Returns star Kevin Spacey is said to have broken down in tears in court today after being found not guilty of nine charges of sexual assault.
In a trial that's spanned four weeks in London's Southwark Crown Court, the actor has also faced allegations of indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity. It took the jury two days to reach its decision, and the twelve jurors deemed him innocent on all counts.
Four men had made these incredibly serious allegations, and more details on those can be found in Variety's full report.
The gist, however, is that Spacey was accused of everything from groping to sexually assaulting someone who had either fallen asleep or somehow been rendered unconscious. Noteworthy is the fact the actor was able to provide evidence contradicting some of these accounts and even denied having ever met one of the men.
The closest Spacey came to ever admitting any sort of guilt was when he denied sexual assault but confessed to making a drunken "clumsy pass" for which he later attempted to apologise.
These latest acquittals come after Spacey won a $40 million civil lawsuit brought by actor Anthony Rapp last October. He'd accused the Oscar-winner of sexual battery, but a New York jury dismissed the claim.
With his name essentially clear, can Spacey resume his acting career in earnest? It's not quite that simple and, since these allegations first came out, he's found himself written out of House of Cards' final season and removed from several projects he'd previously been attached to.
There likely is a way back for Spacey especially as he is, for all intents and purposes, now an innocent man. Major studios are likely to be wary of any past or future controversies, so it could be a while before you see him back on the big screen in any major roles.
He does have a couple of B-movies on the way, though, including Peter Five Eight and Control.