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Let's get one thing straight - Kevin Spacey is not a paedophile.

If the allegation is correct that he picked up a 14-year-old boy "like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold" and tried to seduce him, then Spacey would be an ephebophile . And also, a criminal.

There are many names for the sort of person who has sexual interest in pubescent children, and in the state of New York where the alleged incident is claimed to have taken place it can, if taken a criminal and physical step further than Spacey is accused of, be called 3rd degree rape.

We can ask ourselves why Spacey chose not to deny Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp's claim. Why he CAN'T remember an incident 30 years ago when he may have made a sexual advance to a minor, but CAN be sure he was drunk.

I've been drunk. I've been so drunk the hotel sent out to other hotels for more wine, and when that ran out and we demanded they send out for more they admitted there was none left in the entire country.

I've been so drunk I can't remember getting home or what I said, but I have always been 100 per cent certain that I didn't attempt to seduce a child. Alcohol changes your mood, not your wiring.

(Image: Twitter/@KevinSpacey)

I suppose we must give Spacey credit for one thing - that unlike so many men accused of such things his initial response was not to trash the reputation of his accuser. He has not said Rapp was drunk too, he has not questioned what a 14-year-old boy was doing in his apartment in the first place, why it took 31 years to be mentioned or why he spoke to a journalist rather than a police officer.

Spacey hasn't lawyered up, issued belligerent allegations of his own or demanded an apology like so many others have, from Harvey Weinstein to Freddie Starr.

But he also didn't leave it there. He should have, but instead he went on to come out, revealing the worst-kept showbusiness secret since Liberace found the jewellery box.

The thing is, being gay doesn't explain taking a sexual interest in children.

In fact a 1992 study by the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in the US found the ratio of heterosexual to homosexual paedophile sex offenders was 11:1.

But Spacey's real problem isn't just what he's accused of doing. It's that, just like Weinstein, Starr, and so many others he thinks that there is an excuse for it.

Weinstein's excuse for a catalogue of allegations from inappropriate touching to rape - judging from the fact his response was to check into a sex addiction clinic - is that he has an illness. Starr's for allegedly groping a girl from a care home was that he was the victim of libel. Rolf Harris claimed to be hounded by accusers for his fortune, and just this weekend Brexit minister Mark Garnier said calling his secretary "sugart***" was harmless banter.

From rape to sexual misconduct at work, there's always an excuse to be made. And there is never one that holds water.

After Garnier was named in the Sunday papers and there were claims 36 MPs in the Tory Party alone are named in a dossier of dodgy behaviour, some in Westminster called for calm. After all, they said, it's not like Weinstein. It's not rape, which of course the big W denies.

Well, it is and it isn't. The crime may be less serious, but the way it unfolds is always the same.

(Image: Getty)

A man with flaws which he and those around him try to ignore exercises power over someone who has none. Whether he's ordering her to take dictation while he undresses, implies she'll lose work if she doesn't comply, or forces his way into her house at knifepoint makes no difference.

It doesn't happen in front of witnesses. He doesn't pick on the ones who are older or wiser. And the victim is usually left feeling that they were to blame - that they should have seen it coming, imagined it or chose the wrong path home.

That's why they don't say anything for years and when they do have little option but to merely warn others quietly rather than admit they felt culpable and listen to a defence lawyer twist it into silent consent.

(Image: AFP)

Rapp said after he left Spacey's apartment he kept asking himself: "' What was that? What am I supposed to do with it? What does it mean?' The older I get, and the more I know, I feel very fortunate that something worse didn’t happen. And at the same time, the older I get, the more I can’t believe it. I could never imagine anyone else I know would do something like that to a 14-year-old boy.”

A 14-year-old boy thinks it's wrong but isn't sure. A vulnerable girl thinks it's wrong but doesn't want to cause a fuss. A young man or woman asks themselves whether this is how everyone gets a job.

The only person who should behave better is the man who doesn't.

(Image: Fox)

As the scandal has rocketed from the BBC to Tinseltown to the White House and Westminster, it's stopped being about men behaving badly and been turned into politics.

The Left trumpet self-importantly about Donald Trump's pussy-grabbing, while the Right claim moral superiority over the liberals of Hollywood, even to the point of some people "enjoying" the Weinstein scandal.

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If that were true, the Houses of Parliament would consist of rapists on one side and paedos on the other. The Oscars red carpet would be conducted like a perp walk and any woman who entered acting, politics or Broadcasting House would be advised to do so in steel knickers.

You don't sexualise children because you vote one way, or call your secretary "sugart****" because you vote the other.

Spacey's right about one thing. This DOES happen because men are in the closet - hiding the fact they are controlling, dominating, sick pigs who refuse to just admit what they are.

It really is as simple as that. And for once, outing them is justified.