British comedian and children’s author David Walliams allegedly groomed teenage fans and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl, as well as harassing young female colleagues, according to reports in British media.
Warning: This article includes allegations of sexual assault and references to suicide some readers may find distressing.
The allegations, published by The Guardian newspaper and ITV news channel, were aired after a joint investigation into claims by multiple women dating as far back as 2003.
Mr Walliams, who lost a High Court battle against being identified in the UK media and did not appeal, denied targeting teenagers and using his fame to manipulate them to have sex, his lawyers said.
They did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.
“I am not a sexual predator,” Mr Walliams said, according to ITV News.
“I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.
“Whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that I never did.”
David Walliams and Matt Lucas rose to fame in the early 2000s with the sketch show Little Britain. (Reuters: Stephen Hird)
Now 55, Mr Walliams starred in the BBC’s “Little Britain” sketch show in the early 2000s and was a judge on commercial broadcaster ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.
He also penned books such as Mr Stink, Gangsta Granny and The Boy in the Dress, with his work translated into more than 50 languages and reportedly selling 50 million copies.
When seeking to block the publication of the reports, Mr Walliams’s legal team argued he was “highly likely” to die by suicide if they were published.
David Walliams was awarded an OBE for services to charity and the arts in 2017. (Reuters: Philip Toscano)
The High Court heard he made two suicide attempts this year and was detained in a secure hospital last month.
Almost all the women making claims were identified only by first names, some changed at their request.
‘I was groomed, 100 per cent’
In a particularly grave allegation, one woman, named Jade, said Walliams contacted her in 2007 via her social media page, showing her age as 15.
Then, aged 36, he invited her to his house and pulled up her top and sucked her breast, she said, with her words read by an actor in a documentary released by ITV.
“It’s a sexual assault, it’s a grooming, it’s completely wrong in every way,” she said.
It is illegal in Britain for someone aged over 18 to intentionally communicate with a child under 16 for a sexual purpose.
His lawyers said he never engaged in grooming young women and denied sexual contact with Jade.
Another woman, named Alex, told The Guardian Mr Walliams first met her when she was a 15-year-old aspiring comedy writer, and he was 32.
He phoned her and gave her tickets to shows.
She said they had sex for the first time at his home when she was 17 and he was 34.
She said this was consensual but that he was “pushy” and treated her “like a prostitute”.
“I think I was groomed, 100 per cent. We met when I was 15, and he was promising to help me … He used that power,” she said.
His lawyers told The Guardian he believed she was 18 and that she had re-established contact with him.
The investigation also claims Mr Walliams messaged teenage models and invited teenage fans back to his dressing room and his house.
His publisher, HarperCollins, dropped him last year after he faced accusations of harassing female staff, which he denied, and he has not posted on social media since.
The latest allegations prompted more organisations to distance themselves from the former star.
A BBC spokesperson told AFP it has taken down some shows involving Mr Walliams from its platforms, including all episodes of “Little Britain”, which ran between 2003 and 2006.
A spokesperson for his literary agents, Independent Talent Group, told AFP that after the latest claims, “we are no longer representing him in any capacity”.
AFP/AP
Source: www.abc.net.au
