LONDON (AP) — British children’s author and actor David Walliams used his fame to groom girls and young women for sexual purposes, two British media outlets reported on Tuesday.
ITV News and the Guardian newspaper said their joint investigation included interviews with several women who gave first-hand accounts of Walliams’ conduct. One woman claimed he sexually assaulted her at his home when she was 15, while others accused him of grooming them when they were teenagers.
Walliams, 55, has denied the allegations. He had searched a court injunction bar ITV News and the Guardian for identifying him in their reporting. His lawyers claimed that publishing allegations of sexual misconduct would cause him to commit suicide.
A judge denied his request for an injunction last week, but shielded his identity until Monday evening.
“I’m not a sexual predator,” Walliams said, according to ITV. “I did not break the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 or 20 years ago are now expressing their hurt or anger towards me. »
“While an imbalance of power is inevitable when a party is famous, abusing that power is another thing entirely and something I have never done,” he added.
Walliams’ lawyer Sara Mansoori earlier told the High Court he attempted suicide when he received letters from ITN and Guardian News and Media seeking his response to the allegations. He then made another attempt, she said, and was recently admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care.
The case attracted widespread attention in Britain because it highlighted questions about the privacy rights of public figures and what the media can report on the basis of the public interest.
Gavin Millar, representing the media companies, said the allegations were gathered after “an extensive and rigorous investigation” and there was strong public interest in publishing them.
He told the court the investigation involved speaking to more than 100 people and alleged that, over a period of years, Walliams “used his status and influence as a well-known public figure to establish contact with young women, some considerably younger than himself, and engaged in or sought to engage in seriously inappropriate conduct”, according to a summary of the court judgment.
Some of the alleged conduct could constitute criminal offenses if proven, he added.
Walliams was dropped last year by publisher HarperCollins after allegations were committed because of inappropriate behavior. Few details were released at the time, but the Guardian reported Tuesday that his behavior had raised concerns for years, including an allegation that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a young female employee.
Walliams is best known for his comedy sketches on “Little Britain,” a hugely popular British television show in the 2000s, but he is also a famous author of children’s books with around 40 published titles that have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, according to his website.
Several of them, including “Gangsta Granny”, have been adapted into BBC comedy-dramas and stage productions.
He was also a judge for years on “Britain’s Got Talent”, although in 2022 he resigned after apologizing for making “disrespectful comments” about contestants’ auditions.
The BBC announced on Tuesday that it was axing some programmes, including “Little Britain”, while carrying out a review of “all material presented and written by David Walliams on our platforms”.
Literary agency Independent Talent Group also announced it was dropping Walliams following the new allegations.
In rejecting Walliams’ request for an injunction, Justice Matthew Nicklin said such a legal step would mean “an exceptionally serious interference” with the rights of media companies.
He noted that Walliams suffered from a “severe and long-standing psychiatric vulnerability” which needed to be taken seriously, and said a decision to allow the allegations to be published would significantly increase his risk of suicide. However, he added that the evidence “does not establish that suicide is inevitable.”
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