LONDON (AP) — Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey got a thrill preying on other men and escalated his behaviour from touchy-feely advances to hostile fondling and worse, a prosecutor told jurors Friday during Spacey’s sexual assault trial in London.

Spacey is “a man who does not respect personal boundaries or space, a man who it would seem delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable — a sexual bully,” prosecutor Christine Agnew said in her opening statement. “His preferred method of assault is, it appears, to grab aggressively other men in the crotch.”

Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges involving four men and allegations that date from 2001 to 2013, when he worked at London’s Old Vic Theatre. The charges include sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

The stakes for the American actor are high. A conviction could send him to prison, while an acquittal could allow for a career comeback.

Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs said Spacey denied all allegations of nonconsensual activity and told jurors to ask themselves as they listened to the evidence what — if anything — had occurred when he was with the men. He suggested the alleged victims had other motives and said that Spacey had left himself open to opportunists when he came out as gay in 2020.

“What has been reimagined with a sinister spin?” Gibbs said. “What has been made up or twisted and why and when because all of these allegations happened a long time ago.”

He said jurors would hear truths, half-truths, deliberate exaggerations and “many damned lies.”

Spacey, wearing spectacles and dressed in a light gray suit, white shirt and gold tie, leaned forward behind a window in the dock, listening intently as his lawyer provided a brief overview of the case. Gibbs will present a longer opening statement after the prosecution rests its case.

The actor served as the Old Vic Theatre’s artistic director from 2003 until 2015. The four men who have accused Spacey of sexual assault, now in their 30s or 40s, did not know each other, but all “had the misfortune to attract” his attention, Agnew said.

One victim said he was frequently groped against his wishes by Spacey in the early 2000s, culminating with a day when he was driving and the actor, who had been drinking, grabbed his privates so hard it took his breath away and he nearly ran off the road. He told Spacey to never do that again.

Spacey “laughed and commented that his getting angry simply turned him on,” Agnew said.

Spacey narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips as Agnew spoke, occasionally jotting notes with a pencil on the pages of a large black binder he carried into court.

During questioning by police last year, Spacey said he was “baffled and deeply hurt” by those allegations from someone he considered a friend. He said the events had been reimagined into lies.

Agnew said Spacey seemed to be confident the men wouldn’t tell anyone — that the word of a celebrity would be more believable than from someone who wasn’t famous.

“None of the men wanted to be touched by Kevin Spacey … in a sexual way, but he doesn’t seem to have cared very much for their feelings,” the prosecutor said. “He did what he wanted to do for his own personal sexual gratification.”

Another man who said Spacey groped him at a charity event in 2005 only told one friend about it until speaking with police in 2017.