Elton John tells court Kevin Spacey attended charity ball at his home

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Elton John has told a court that Kevin Spacey attended a charity ball at his home after arriving by private jet.

The singer also quipped that he was always in a “mad rush” when leaving West End theatres, saying: “It could be the queen and I wouldn’t notice her.”

John, 76, was called as a defence witness in the Oscar-winning actor’s trial, giving evidence to Southwark crown court via video link from Monaco on Monday.

Spacey denies all charges including sexual assault and indecent assault against four men in their 20s and 30s, between 2001 and 2013.

One complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has claimed he was driving the House of Cards star to a party hosted by John and his husband, David Furnish, when Spacey grabbed his penis with such force that he almost crashed.

Spacey has denied assaulting the man on the way to the white tie and tiara ball, saying: “No, I was not on a suicide mission in any of those years.”

Wearing a dark suit, open-necked shirt and orange tinted glasses, John told the court that he did not recognise a photograph of the complainant.

During cross-examination by the prosecutor, Christine Agnew KC, the musician was asked if he remembered Spacey attending the ball, which raised funds for the Elton John Aids Foundation, on one occasion in the early 2000s.

John, who gave his name to the court as “Elton Hercules John”, said: “Yes, because he arrived in white tie, he came on a private jet and came straight to the ball.”

Agnew asked him to confirm if Spacey had flown in by private jet and John joked: “I believe so. I don’t think he was wearing white tie on a commercial flight.”

“One never knows,” she returned.

John, who struggled to hear the questions over the video link and had to have them repeated by a lawyer in the room in Monaco, said Spacey had stayed at the couple’s home after the ball. “On the night he attended the ball he stayed overnight at our house,” he said.

During the trial, jurors have heard how Spacey bought “the most expensive Mini Cooper ever” at an auction at the ball and stored it at the couple’s home.

John was asked if remembered Spacey coming to collect the car, to which he responded: “I can’t remember him coming down after that, no.”

He also faced questions about a picture of himself leaving the Victoria Palace theatre in London after a performance of Billy Elliot.

He told jurors: “I’m looking straight forward at my car there. When I come out of the theatre, it’s always a mad rush to get into the car. Anyone who is on my periphery, I wouldn’t notice them. It could be the queen and I wouldn’t notice her.”

Furnish also gave evidence via video link from Monaco, saying he remembered Spacey attending the ball – which was sponsored by OK! Magazine – on one occasion. The possibility of Spacey attending the ball on more than one occasion has formed part of the evidence at the trial.

Agnew asked Furnish, 60, if it was possible that the celebrities attending the charity event could ask not to be photographed.

He said: “It never happened. It was understood we were promoting a charity involving the eradication of stigma surrounding disease. For celebrities wanting to come to our event, it was always understood they needed to be photographed.”

He added: “To have a star of the magnitude of Kevin Spacey and to go to OK! and say he didn’t want to be photographed, that would be an impossible situation for the foundation to be in.”

He added that “there was a lot of buzz and excitement” that the award-winning actor was attending the ball.

Wearing a grey suit and blue shirt, Spacey appeared in the dock on Monday, as his trial entered its fourth week.

He appeared emotional on Thursday as he described feeling “crushed” when he found out that the complainant in question had accused him of assaulting him in the early 2000s. In his evidence, he said the pair had a “somewhat sexual” relationship.

“I was crushed. I never thought that [the man] I knew would 20 years later stab me in the back,” he said.

Spacey cried on Monday as his barrister, Patrick Gibbs KC, read out 10 witness statements from friends and family.

The actor Robert Sean Leonard, who appears in the Academy Award-nominated film Dead Poets Society, told how Spacey was “kind and respectful” to everyone he worked with.

“He’s more than a successful actor, he’s a movie star, but unlike every other movie star I’ve worked with, he doesn’t know it,” Leonard, 54, said. “Stardom was never his goal. He loves and respects the work, and he loves and respects the people he works with.

“In the US there are elderly homes set up to home actors in their declining years. Over the years he has spent many, many hours sitting with elderly actors, comforting and listening to them. He’s been doing it for many years and he doesn’t advertise this passion; he would not, he just does it.”

Spacey denies 12 charges: seven of sexual assault, three of indecent assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

The trial continues.