Updated December 25, 2018 10:47:25

Actor Kevin Spacey has broken his more than year-long public silence, posting an apparent defence of himself against sexual assault allegations on YouTube as news of fresh charges emerged.

A Massachusetts prosecutor said on Tuesday (AEDT) that Mr Spacey is due in court next month on a charge of indecent assault and battery against the teenage son of a Boston television anchor in a restaurant.

It is the first criminal case brought against Mr Spacey since his career collapsed amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations in late 2017.

In a YouTube video titled Let Me Be Frank, he took on the persona of his House of Cards character, Frank Underwood, in a kitchen preparing a Christmas meal.

It is not clear if he is referring to the charges stemming from the Nantucket allegations in the video, which mimics one of the show's regular fourth-wall breaks, posted shortly after the charges became public.

"We're not done no matter what anyone says. I know what you want — you want me back," Mr Spacey starts the video by saying.

"Of course, some believed everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all. They're just dying to have me declare that everything said is true and that I got what I deserve.

"Wouldn't that be easy? If it was all so simple? Only you and I both know it's never that simple — not in politics and not in life. But you wouldn't believe the worst without evidence would you? You wouldn't rush to judgement without facts, would you? Did you? No, not you, you're smarter than that."

Spacey alleged to have stuck hand down 18-year-old's pants

The Academy Award-winning actor is due in Nantucket District Court on January 7, according to Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe.

He said a criminal complaint was issued by a clerk magistrate at a hearing last week after former news anchor Heather Unruh came forward in November last year, saying the actor stuck his hand down her then-18-year-old son's pants and grabbed his genitals at a restaurant on the resort island of Nantucket in July 2016.

Photo: The allegations against Kevin Spacey were first made public in November, 2017. (Reuters: Eduardo Munoz)

Her son fled the restaurant when Mr Spacey went to use the bathroom, Unruh said at the time, adding that her son did not report the assault right away because he was embarrassed.

"The complainant has shown a tremendous amount of courage in coming forward," Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer for Unruh's son, said in a statement.

"Let the facts be presented, the relevant law applied and a just and fair verdict rendered."

Mr Spacey was axed for season six of House of Cards after allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled at the two-time Oscar winner by actor Anthony Rapp in October last year.

The 59-year-old's controversial defence of himself at the time was the last thing he posted to his official social media channels.

'Impeachment without a trial'

Frank Underwood became US president in House of Cards before being killed off-screen, with the first trailer for the new season of the Netflix drama showing his on-screen wife, Claire, standing over his grave.

Mr Spacey was also replaced in the Oscar-nominated Ridley Scott film, All The Money In The World.

Photo: Frank Underwood's southern drawl and fourth-wall breaks were the most recognisable features of House of Cards. (Netflix: House of Cards)

"All this presumption made for such an unsatisfying ending. And to think it could've been such a memorable send-off," Mr Spacey said in his latest YouTube video.

"If you and I have learned nothing else these past years it's that in life and art nothing should be off limits. We weren't afraid — not of what we said and not of what we did — and we're still not afraid.

"Because I can promise you this, if I didn't pay the price for the things we both know I did do I'm certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn't do.

"Of course they're going to say I'm being disrespectful, not playing by the rules, like I ever played by anyone's rules before. I never did, and you loved it.

"Despite all the poppycock, the animosity, the headlines, the impeachment without a trial. Despite everything, despite even my own death, I feel surprisingly good."

A message seeking comment was left with Mr Spacey's spokeswoman Laura Johnson.

Mr Spacey remains under investigation of sexual assault in Los Angeles for an incident that allegedly occurred in 2016. Prosecutors declined to file charges in a 1992 allegation because of the statute of limitations.

Mr Spacey had also faced accusations of sexual misconduct while artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre.

ABC/AP

Topics: sexual-offences, film, television, united-states

First posted December 25, 2018 09:23:17