David Walliams has been accused of preying on teenage girls and young women for sexual purposes, according to a three-year joint investigation by ITV News and the Guardian. Multiple women have accused the former Britain's Got Talent judge and Little Britain star of “grooming” them when they were teenagers. Walliams has denied the allegations.
Accusations of Grooming and Assault
The identities of those who have spoken to the publications have been hidden and were given pseudonyms. One accuser says Walliams responded to her personally after she commented on MySpace in 2007. The accuser, who ITV News identified only as Jade (not their real name), described what Walliams allegedly did to her when she was 15 as “grooming” and “a sexual assault”.
After replying to a Myspace message, the two would talk on the phone via a withheld number and continue through email, the accuser claims. Jade would later meet Walliams in London and claims she would agree to go to his home following an invite.
Jade claims: “He asked me to come over and gave me a hug. That's when he kissed me again,” Jade claims. “He lifted my top up and sucked on my breast and then tried to put my hand down his trousers. That's when I pulled away and said ‘no’. He had an erection at the time.
“I wasn't ready for sex. I didn't want to do that - with him or with anyone… I didn't want to be touched in that way at all. I mean, I was only a 15-year-old.”
Jade claims Walliams replied "that we should wait until I'm 16 and to keep in contact." She left Walliams’ house and didn’t see him again.
Further Allegations and Legal Action
Another accuser claims Walliams contacted her after meeting her at a Little Britain event before allegedly starting a sexual relationship when she was 17. Walliams is also accused of inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment at Britain’s Got Talent and at the publisher, HarperCollins.
The investigation by the Guardian and ITV News revealed he had a sexual relationship with at least one junior employee at HarperCollins and pursued another. Walliams has denied the allegations of abusing his power as a celebrity in relationships with women but said he realised he had “behaved thoughtlessly”.
In a statement to the Guardian and ITV News, the comedian said: “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… “I am not a sexual predator… I have not broken the law… I am devastated that some of the women I met ten to twenty years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.”
Walliams, 55, brought legal action against Independent Television News (ITN) and Guardian News and Media (GNM), publisher of The Guardian, ahead of the two organisations reporting allegations against him, including of sexual misconduct and potential criminal activity. Lawyers for the media organisations previously told the High Court in London the allegations involved Walliams’ alleged “abuse of power and status” to contact young women and try to engage in “inappropriate and exploitative sexual activities”.
Walliams denied the claims and unsuccessfully sought an injunction to prevent these publications because of the risk he would take his own life, after two previous suicide attempts. The author was granted anonymity during the proceedings, which was lifted after his injunction bid was dismissed and GNM and ITN published their investigations on Tuesday.
