Elton John testifies for defence at Spacey sex assault trial

LONDON, United Kingdom - British rock star Elton John on Monday gave evidence as a witness for the defense at the sexual assault trial of Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey.

The two-time Oscar winner denies 12 charges concerning four men, including indecent assault, which are alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2013.

Giving evidence via video link from Monaco, the musician and his husband David Furnish were questioned about Spacey attending an annual ball at their home in Windsor, west of London.

One of the alleged victims has accused Spacey of sexually assaulting him while he was driving the actor to the fundraising event, claiming he grabbed "so hard" they nearly came off the road.

Spacey, 63, had earlier told the Southwark Crown Court in London that the incident "never happened", adding that he was "not on a suicide mission".

He said there had been a mutual flirtation between them and admitted to having touched the man but not in a "violent, aggressive, painful way".

Responding to questions from the prosecution, John said he recalled Spacey, dressed in "white tie", attending the fundraising event in the early 2000s.

"He was on a flight, he came on a private jet and he came straight to the ball," John told the court, adding that Spacey stayed overnight at their home after the event.

"I can't remember him coming after that," John said.

Asked if he came straight from the private jet, the singer said "I assume so, yes".

Furnish, who was first to give evidence, also said he remembered Spacey's presence at the social event.

"He was an Oscar-winning actor, there was a lot of excitement he was at the ball," the filmmaker told the jury.

"Other than attending the ball I have no memory of Kevin coming to the house ever again," he added.

- 'Like another son' -

John was among the several celebrities that Spacey mentioned in court when he entered the witness box earlier in the trial.

He spoke of giving a ping pong table to actress Judi Dench after they worked on the 2001 film "The Shipping News" together, saying they developed a "lovely friendship".

Spacey grew emotional on Monday, dabbing his eyes as the court heard character statements from friends and family.

"House" and "Dead Poets Society" star Robert Sean Leonard described Spacey as "positive, supportive and respectful", while Chris Lemmon, son of "Some Like It Hot" actor Jack Lemmon, said Spacey was "like another son" to his father.

Spacey is an Academy Award winner for "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty", and was artistic director of London's Old Vic theatre between 2004 and 2015.

At the opening of the trial late last month, the prosecution claimed Spacey was a "sexual bully" who revelled in making others feel uncomfortable, including by aggressively grabbing men's crotches.

The court has heard from the four alleged victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, one of whom, a former aspiring actor, said he woke up to Spacey performing a sex act on him, suggesting the actor "drugged" him.

Last week Spacey in his testimony denied the sexual assault charges and described the prosecution's case against him as "weak".

He has previously told the court his world "exploded" when he was first accused of sexual assault several years ago by US actor Anthony Rapp in the United States, adding that he "lost everything in a matter of days".

Rapp's allegations were found not proven last year.

The trial continues.

Agence France Presse

Woman poses as 16-year-old boy to lure girls, may have victimized up to 50 teens

A woman who posed as a 16-year-old boy in social media to deceive girls has been sentenced to imprisonment of eight years, in the United Kingdom. The woman was found guilty of sexual assault and the police are trying to get in touch with at least 50 other supposed victims.

The 21-year-old Gemma Watts used social networking sites such as Snapchat and Instagram to pose as Jake Waton, as per The Telegraph on Jan. 10. Some of Watts’ victims, ranging from as young as 13 to 16 years old, have reportedly attempted self-harm and are experiencing instability in their mental health due to the whole ordeal.


The woman who lived with her mother in North London apparently traveled all around the country via train to meet up with her victims. Watts disguised her female appearance by tying her hair into a bun and hiding it under a baseball cap. She also wore baggy bottoms and a hoodie when meeting up with her victims in their family homes.

Watts pleaded guilty to seven out of the eleven counts of sexual assault charges, according to the report. Some of the victims identified by the authorities are a 13-year-old girl, two girls aged 14, and a 16-year-old.

After her arrest, Watts told the authorities that she only saw posing as Jake as a game, The Guardian reported on the same day.

“I was only trying to cheer them up,” Watts was quoted as saying.

Judge Susan Evans stated that elements of Watt’s behavior were predatory in nature and that the girls Watts targeted were vulnerable, as some had previously been bullied or had low self-esteem. She was also convinced that Watts has a low intelligence quotient and had issues about her own sexuality, as per report.

The authorities are urging Watts’ other victims to come forward. Many of her victims only realized they have been tricked by Watts after her case was made known to the public. Cha Lino/JB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Lawyer: Ronaldo rape accuser ’emotionally fragile’

LAS VEGAS — A lawyer for a Nevada woman alleging that soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo raped her in Las Vegas in 2009 said Tuesday her client was “emotionally fragile” and agreed to an out-of-court financial settlement nine years ago because she never wanted her name made public.

Kathryn Mayorga is out of the U.S. and is not speaking with media about the lawsuit she filed last week seeking monetary damages from Ronaldo, attorney Larissa Drohobyczer told The Associated Press. Drohobyczer didn’t say where Mayorga was. She lives in the Las Vegas-area city of Henderson.

AP does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Drohobyczer said Mayorga gave permission on Tuesday for her name to be used.

“She’s not going to be interviewed,” the attorney said. “At this time she’s emotionally fragile.”

The civil lawsuit filed in state court in Las Vegas alleges Ronaldo raped Mayorga, who was then 24, in his penthouse suite at a Las Vegas hotel and hired a team of what the document called “fixers” to shape the monetary settlement, obstruct a police criminal investigation and trick Mayorga into taking $375,000 to keep quiet.

An attorney for Ronaldo, Christian Schertz in Berlin, did not immediately respond to emails from AP. It was not immediately clear if the player had an attorney representing him in the matter in the U.S. After the German magazine Der Spiegel reported about the lawsuit last week, Schertz threatened to sue, saying the article violated Ronaldo’s personal rights “in an exceptionally serious way.”

In an Instagram video posted hours after the suit was filed, Ronaldo appears to deny the allegations.

“Fake. Fake news,” said the five-time world player of the year. “You want to promote by my name. It’s normal. They want to be famous, to say my name. But it is part of the job. I am a happy man and all good.”

Drohobyczer, who said she did not represent Mayorga in 2009 negotiations with Ronaldo’s representatives, acknowledged Mayorga accepted the settlement money.

No court document was filed, and Drohobyczer declined to identify the lawyers who handled the case at that time for Mayorga and for Ronaldo.

An attorney who may have represented Mayorga in 2009 did not respond Tuesday to messages from AP.

Drohobyczer said Mayorga, now 34, became worried that her name would become public after a 2017 media report apparently referred to the June 2009 incident at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Mayorga was not a source for the article, Drohobyczer said.

Her client also was influenced in recent months by the #MeToo movement of women making public allegations of prior sexual assault, the attorney said.

Mayorga met Ronaldo at a nightclub, according to the lawsuit, and went with him and other people to his suite, where the alleged attack took place in a bedroom.

“She came to us and we had concerns with what happened in 2009 … with the police investigation and the circumstances around the settlement and how the negotiations were conducted,” Drohobyczer told AP.

“We don’t believe she had the capacity to enter an agreement at that time due to her emotional state,” Drohobyczer said. She characterized Mayorga in 2009 as emotionally damaged, fearful, depressed and humiliated after the alleged attack and pressure from Ronaldo’s representatives.

“We asked police to reopen the investigation and they did,” Drohobyczer said.

Officer Aden OcampoGomez, a Las Vegas police spokesman, said that because the investigation is open, the department would not make public a police report that Mayorga filed the day of the alleged attack. The lawsuit said Mayorga also went to a hospital, where a sexual assault medical examination was conducted.

However, Mayorga refused to tell police the location of the alleged attack or to identify a suspect other than to say he was a European soccer player, OcampoGomez said.

Ronaldo, 33, is a Portuguese citizen. He went from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 for a then-record sum of 94 million euros, or about $130 million. He now plays for the Italian club Juventus.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages of at least $200,000. It makes 11 accusations against Ronaldo or those working for him, including conspiracy, defamation, abusing a vulnerable person, battery, infliction of emotional distress, coercion and fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, breach of contract, abuse of process and negligence for allowing details of the confidential settlement to become public.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Argento recalls sexual encounter with Jimmy Bennett

Italian actress Asia Argento, who became a leading figure in the #MeToo movement after accusing powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of rape, admitted she had sex with young actor Jimmy Bennett, who claimed she sexually assaulted him as a teenager.

During a television show in Italy on Sunday Argento, who had initially denied having sex with Bennett, recounted her relationship with the actor.


Argento, who played his troubled mother in the 2004 film “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things”, saw him again in May 2013, when he was 17 and she was 37.

According to Bennett’s account of the encounter he gave in a September 24 interview on Italian television, Argento kissed him for a long time.

“It turned into her placing her hands on me and following that was when she pushed me onto the bed and took my pants off,” said the actor, now 22.

Asked whether it was a “complete” relationship, Bennett said it was, implying they had sex, but declined to go into detail.

The actor and rock musician was 17 years old at the time of the alleged assault. The legal age of consent in California is 18.

Argento strongly denied his version of events, saying the young man had asked her to help him prepare for an audition, as she did when he was a child.

“He started kissing me and touching me, but not as a mother and child as I saw him, but as a boy with raging hormones … And that froze me,” she recounted.

“He literally jumped on me (…) He was on me, and he came. Me, I didn’t feel anything, I didn’t react because for me it was unthinkable,” added the actress.

“He told me it was a fantasy he’d had since the age of 12. For him, I was a hunting trophy,” she said.


In the following months, Argento said she had received intimate videos of him via Snapchat.

She said she did not break ties with Bennett because he was “troubled.”

But this winter the young actor asked for $3.5 million to keep quiet.

During the interview, Argento shared messages exchanged with her late boyfriend, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who would have paid for peace.

Bourdain reportedly paid him $250,000. Following Bourdain’s suicide in June, Argento suspended the payments.

“What hurt me most is being called a pedophile,” the actress said.

The daughter of “Suspiria” director Dario Argento, she became a powerful voice for the #MeToo movement after accusing Weinstein of raping her when she was 21 in his hotel room in 1997 during the Cannes film festival. CC

source: entertainment.inquirer.net