Prosecutors in the US have dropped a case accusing Kevin Spacey of groping a teenager at a bar in 2016.
The House of Cards actor was accused of getting an 18-year-old man drunk before groping him at the restaurant and bar on the island of Nantucket where the man worked clearing tables, according to the Associated Press.
The Cape and Islands district attorney said on Wednesday that it had dropped the indecent assault and battery case brought against the actor last year in the state of Massachusetts.
The 59-year-old, who also faces claims of sexual assault in the UK, denies the allegations.
The case was dismissed after Spacey’s accuser invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify about text messages the defence claimed were deleted.
The man had been ordered to hand in the mobile phone he used the night of the alleged assault.
However, he refused to turn it over and later said it had been lost.
Shortly after Spacey was charged late last year, he posted a bizarre video to YouTube, appearing in the guise of Frank Underwood, his Machiavellian US president from House Of Cards, saying: “I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn’t do.”
The star was sacked from the Netflix show and Sir Ridley Scott erased him from his completed film All The Money In The World, with re-shoots costing millions.
Spacey has faced several other accusations.
He was one of the first Hollywood stars to face allegations in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The actor was quizzed over six allegations of sexual assault in the UK between 1996 and 2013.
Actor Anthony Rapp also alleged he was 14 when Spacey, then 26, made a sexual advance to him in 1986.
Spacey said he did not remember the alleged encounter, but apologised for any “inappropriate drunken behaviour”.
The veteran actor was artistic director at London’s The Old Vic theatre between 2004 and 2015.
The theatre later found 20 people claimed they had been subjected to inappropriate behaviour from the actor.