US prosecutors drop sex assault case against Kevin Spacey

Actor Kevin Spacey attends a pretrial hearing at district court in Nantucket Credit: Steven Senne/AP

Prosecutors have dropped a case accusing Kevin Spacey of sexually assaulting a young man at a Massachusetts resort island bar in 2016.

The Cape and Islands district attorney said on Wednesday that they dropped the indecent assault and battery case brought against the actor last year.

Spacey was accused of getting an 18-year-old man drunk and then groping him at a Nantucket restaurant and bar where the teenager worked as a busboy.

Spacey denied the allegations.

The case struggled after Spacey’s accuser invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify about text messages the defence claims were deleted.

The accuser had been ordered to testify about a mobile phone he used the night of the alleged assault.

He was supposed to turn it over to the defence, but said it was missing.