Over two years after actor Anthony Rapp first filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to Kevin Spacey over an alleged sexual assault that occurred in 1986, opening statements within the trial occurred Thursday in a Manhattan courtroom.

“What occurred to Anthony is one thing that by no means ought to have occurred,” Rapp’s lawyer Peter J. Saghir mentioned throughout his opening assertion. “The conduct right here concerned a 14-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man.”

Rapp, the primary individual to accuse Spacey of sexual misconduct in October 2017, alleged that Spacey groped his buttocks and compelled himself on him throughout a celebration in 1986. Rapp filed their declare beneath New York’s Little one Victims Act, which permits victims of childhood abuse to convey lawsuits over such crimes even after they’ve fallen exterior the statute of limitations.

Rapp initially sued Spacey for assault, battery, and inflicting emotional misery, and whereas a choose dismissed the assault declare through the prolonged pre-trial proceedings, Spacey’s makes an attempt to have the lawsuit itself terminated had been denied in March 2022.

Throughout their opening assertion, Rapp’s legal professionals additionally cited Spacey’s preliminary assertion in response to Rapp’s accusations — the place Spacey mentioned he didn’t bear in mind the encounter however “if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken conduct” — as proof that it occurred.

Spacey’s authorized staff countered that Rapp’s lawsuit was an try to realize “consideration, sympathy and to boost his personal profile.”

“He by no means grew to become the worldwide star that Kevin Spacey did,” Jennifer Keller, an legal professional for Spacey, mentioned in her opening assertion. “He has been simmering and simmering with resentment all this time.” The protection additionally argued that Rapp’s accusations mirror scenes from the play Valuable Sons, which Rapp was starring in on the time of the alleged incident.

Rapp, who at present stars on Star Trek: Discovery, is predicted to testify through the civil trial, as will Andy Holtzman, one other alleged Spacey sufferer who claims the actor groped him years earlier. The New York Occasions experiences that Spacey’s protection staff is predicted to name former Physician Who portrayer John Barrowman to the stand, as that actor was associates with Rapp on the time and Barrowman’s remembrance of occasions differs from Rapp’s.

Outdoors of the civil go well with, Spacey remains to be set to face trial on 5 sexual assault costs in London in June 2023. Spacey has pleaded not responsible to these costs.