British comedian David Walliams has been accused of abusing his celebrity status to prey on teenagers and young women for sex. The claims come from a joint investigation by the Guardian and ITV News, published on Tuesday. Walliams, 55, denies the allegations.
According to the Guardian, a woman it calls Alex says Walliams phoned her in January 2004. She was 15 and studying for her GCSEs. He was 32 and a rising star of the sketch show Little Britain. She had met him at a fan event and handed him scripts she had written, along with her contact details. Alex says they stayed in touch by phone and email over the next two years. By the time she was 17, she says, they were having sex.
A second woman, whom the Guardian calls Jade, says she also met Walliams when she was 15. She alleges that weeks after he first contacted her, he invited her to his house and initiated sexual contact. Most of the women said they were over 18 when they had dealings with him. Several asked for pseudonyms to protect their identity.
The investigation also describes inappropriate behaviour towards women at Britain's Got Talent and at his publisher, HarperCollins. The Guardian reports that HarperCollins cut ties with the bestselling children's author after concerns were raised about his conduct over several years. These included a claim that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior female employee and pursued another. In September, the publisher said it would no longer publish his back catalogue.
Walliams rejects the claims. In a letter to the journalists, he said he had at times "behaved thoughtlessly" towards people he had casual sexual relationships with. He said he regretted not always taking their feelings into account. A power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, he said, but he never abused it. "I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law," he wrote. He added that he was devastated that some women he met 10 to 20 years ago now felt hurt or angry.
Earlier this year, his lawyers went to the High Court to stop the allegations being published. The court dismissed the case, clearing the way for the women's stories to come out.
Walliams, a multimillionaire and OBE recipient, is one of the UK's best-known comedians and writers. He spent a decade as a judge on Britain's Got Talent. He made his name with Little Britain, which he created with Matt Lucas. The show won the top prize at the British Comedy Awards in December 2004.