Comedian Lucy Beaumont has revealed she was one of the whistleblowers who alerted the Guardian to David Walliams' alleged conduct. The 46-year-old was close to tears as she said she feared she would never work in TV again.
Allegations of Abuse of Power
Walliams, 55, was this week named as the celebrity who tried to stop two media organisations from publishing allegations against him after losing his High Court challenge. The former Little Britain and Britain's Got Talent star brought legal action against Independent Television News (ITN) and Guardian News and Media (GNM), publisher of The Guardian.
The court heard they intended to report his alleged "abuse of power and status" to contact young women and try to engage in "inappropriate and exploitative sexual activities". Walliams, who has always denied the claims, was seeking an injunction to prevent this broadcast and publication because of a risk that he would take his own life, following two previous suicide attempts.
Beaumont's Account
Beaumont, who was previously married to comedian Jon Richardson, told Sky News she first became aware of allegations against Walliams three years ago after she was contacted by a young person who had got their first job on TV.
"They worked on a show [Walliams] was on and the next show they worked on was with me and they took me aside and said, 'I need to tell somebody something,'" she explained, saying that they confided in her that they were worried about something they had to do as part of their job. Lucy alleged that their job was to take young girls - which they say were over the age of 16 - to Walliams' dressing room.
"The thing that struck me about it and that I was very concerned about was that [they] said that they were very working class girls, and some of them had never been to London before. They'd never been around TV. [They] felt they were vulnerable."
She said she was "really worried" when she heard the claims. "I used to work in schools, I've been trained in safeguarding. I did as much as I could do privately and whenever I've heard a rumour about anyone, I've done everything I can. There's only so much you can do, I'm not the police. Nothing seems to be illegal."
Contacting the Guardian
Because she was deeply concerned, she contacted the Guardian. "People are saying why tell journalists," she said. "There's no HR department in TV, there's no proper duty of care, there's no social services that you deal with and it's partly because the industry is very well-managed. These are very rare things to happen."
Lucy confirmed that she never witnessed anything untoward with Walliams herself, but that she tried to contact one of the girls who had allegedly been taken to his dressing room. She alleged that one of the young girls she contacted was in a "really bad way" and Lucy feared that she would take her own life, the Mirror reports.
"I was really worried about her," she said. "To be honest, I was really worried she was a going to take her own life because of it. She had put stuff online, there was evidence that she was in a dressing room. I offered to pay legal fees to try and get her some protection. I'm not saying that necessarily what she was saying was true, but I wanted to help her because it was a world that she was really out of her depth with."
NDA Concerns
Lucy alleges that she believes the young person signed an NDA, which she nearly cried about as she spoke about during the interview. The comedian claimed: "[They], I believe, signed an NDA and this is the issue with some of these NDAs. The NDA wasn't just about the fact that [they] couldn't talk to the media - I'm nearly crying telling you this - it was that [they] couldn't talk to family or friends or a therapist.
Lucy said that she's speaking out despite "everyone [she] knows knows", adding: "I don't hear anybody talking about it."
"And honestly, I don't think I'll work in telly again," she admitted. "The reason high profile people are not saying anything is because they lose work [and] you might be seen as a trouble causer. There needs to be an intervention. How can there be an NDA taken against someone who feels she was groomed as a child and she's not allowed to speak to even a therapist or a friend?"
This week, Walliams denied any wrongdoing and said he's 'devastated' by the claims made by the investigation. He sent a letter to journalists working on this investigation and wrote: "Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with. I realise I did not always take people's feelings properly into account. That is something I regret. And 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."
He added: "I am not a sexual predator. 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."
