A woman has spoken out about allegedly being groomed by David Walliams. The former Britain's Got Talent and Little Britain star has been named today, Tuesday, as the high-profile celebrity behind sexual misconduct and potential criminal activity allegations.
Denying any wrongdoing, Walliams 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.
Documentary features alleged victims
With the claims against the 55-year-old now able to be reported, ITV has released an hour-long documentary, David Walliams: Power and Silence, featuring accounts from a number of his alleged victims. One of the most serious claims against Walliams comes from a woman - named as Alex in the programme but not her real name - who said she was aged just 15 when she first met the celebrity.
A huge Little Britain fan, Alex said that she first crossed paths with Walliams in 2004 when she was at a signing for the show in London with her mum.
Looking back to that time, she said in the documentary: "The first thing that he said to me was 'Oh, you're a very attractive lady'."
"I remember him just staring into my eyes the entire time. It felt like he didn't blink and it was just like really intense."
Alleged contact and escalation
Walliams had been a hero of hers in the comedy industry so she sent the star sketches that she had written with a covering letter including her contact details. Just days later, she said she received a call from him. Alex said: "I was home from school and the house phone rang and I picked it up and he said 'Hi Alex, it's David Walliams off the tele'."
After the call had ended, Alex said she wrote a detailed note of what they had talked about. She said: "He said, 'Right, so what you're 15, 16?' I said 'I'm 16 in May'. He said 'I'm sure you're a very clever girl'. I said, 'No', he said 'I think you are, you're very smart and clever'. He said that he thought my scripts are very funny. He also said 'If you've got any new scripts or info, email them to me'."
"I was just like full of hope and excitement in terms of my career and that someone thought that I was good. He was doing that to, you know, ultimately try and sleep with me."
Alex said that the call came to an end after an hour. She said that Walliams gave her his email address after she promised not to share it. She would later send him an email thanking him for reading her sketches and for phoning her.
Alleged sexualised exchanges
Walliams then sent Alex a postcard asking her to "keep in touch", the documentary reported. And while they did initially stay in contact, with her sending a number of sketches to him, in March 2005 he asked her to stop sending him any more work.
However, the programme reported that when they were exchanging emails in October 2005, Walliams was again asking about Alex's age. In a quick back and forth exchange on October 9, 2005, as covered in the TV show, Alex told him that she was playing guitar and watching "lame TV" and was thinking about getting a "very nice bath". Just a minute later, Walliams allegedly replied "you in the bath is a nice thought". She is said to have responded, saying "hmm...you in the bath with me is a nicer thought... hehe..." He allegedly responded: "I'd like that. Call me."
She said: "That to me is when it really properly shifted. And then I remember that evening we spoke on the phone and yeah the tone had massively become sexual."
As time progressed, Alex said that Walliams asked for her to send photos initially starting with ones of her face before eventually escalating to requesting naked photos.
Walliams' response
Throughout the documentary, ITV address Walliams' take on what happened. At this point in the documentary, ITV said: "David Walliams says that he does not recall and does not believe he asked Alex to send him sexual pictures of herself and says that he also believes she was 18 when they were emailing in 2005."
After meeting for the first time in 2004, Alex and Walliams allegedly met in person for a second time, this time at his house. During the encounter, Alex recalls Walliams giving her a "really pushy kiss", before they had sex on his bed. She said: "I remember clocking it and feeling a bit like that's not good. But I was too young. I really don't think I'd have had the ability to get the words out at that point to say don't do that. It just felt very pushy. I felt like a prostitute essentially. You know, I was there for that reason and then I was out."
Alex said that they had consensual sex on three occasions at his home when she was 17 and 18.
The documentary also claims that between the ages of 15 and 18, Walliams offered Alex tickets to Little Britain shows and got her backstage passes.
ITV said: "Walliams denies that he was pushy towards Alex, finds the suggestion distressing, and says she raised no concerns at the time. He also says he can not recall, but believes he used a condom and that each time they had sex, he believed she was 18."
Alex said that for the two years that followed, Walliams continued to try and ask her for sex, but she denied his advances. She said: "My body reacts when I think about it. It's like a trauma response. I think I was groomed 100%."
ITV said: "David Walliams denies grooming Alex. He claims he wrote to her at 15 to encourage her writing. He does not recall offering her tickets to his shows or work experience. He says he is mortified to learn that their brief consensual relationship has caused her sadness."
In a statement to the Guardian and ITV News earlier today, Walliams addressed the allegations more widely: "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 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me."
