Scottish actor Kevin Guthrie, best known in the States for playing Mr. Abernathy in the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them franchise, has been sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in Glasgow. The incident took place in 2017, and a jury found Guthrie guilty of these crimes following a four-day trial that just concluded. Guthrie has been placed on the sex offenders registry.
Deadline has the details of Kevin Guthrie’s crimes. In 2017, a 29-year-old woman was on her way to a bar to meet Guthrie and fellow actor Scott Reid, when she appeared to fall ill on the ride over. The woman was helped from the cab and into Reid’s flat, where he went off to phone the NHS hotline for assistance. Guthrie stayed behind with the woman to watch after her, and was accused of removing her top and performing several sexual acts on her, including kissing her on the mouth. Guthrie’s attacked allegedly ceased the moment Reid returned.
Kevin Guthrie, 33, had denied the woman’s allegations against him, but the BBC reports that the jury was told the actor’s DNA was found inside of the woman’s underwear. At the conclusion of the four-day trial, Guthrie was found guilty and sentenced to the three-year imprisonment.
According to the BBC, Glasgow Sheriff Tom Hughes had this to say to Kevin Guthrie at the time of his sentencing:
The court must show that women can be protected from domestic sexual offences. The offence you have been convicted of caused distress and consequences to the young woman involved in this case. She was unwell and thought her drink had been spiked elsewhere that night. The jury accepted that you committed these heinous crimes and the only appropriate sentence is imprisonment.
Kevin Guthrie's other credits include the 2020 Netflix sports drama The English Game, as well as Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winning Dunkirk. As a member of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise, Kevin Guthrie played the minor role of Abernathy, an American wizard who worked for the Magical Congress of the United States of America. His character oversaw the work of Tina (Katherine Waterston) and Queenie (Alison Sudol) in the Wand Permit Office of the MACUSA, though the Harry Potter fansites go on to report that Abernathy will eventually succumb to the power and influence of Gellert Grindelwald, who will be played by Mads Mikkelsen in the upcoming third Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3.
However, it should be noted that in the Deadline story on Kevin Guthrie's criminal trial, Warner Bros. confirms that the Abernathy character will not show up in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3, and the actor was never supposed to be included in that sequel.
