British children’s author and comedian David Walliams used his fame to groom girls and young women for sex, two British news outlets reported on Tuesday.
ITV News and the Guardian newspaper said their joint investigation featured interviews with multiple women who gave first-hand accounts of Walliams' conduct. One woman alleged he sexually assaulted her at his house when she was 15, while others accused him of grooming them when they were teens.
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Walliams, 55, denied the allegations. He had sought a court injunction to bar ITV News and the Guardian from identifying him in their reporting. His lawyers claimed that publication of sexual misconduct allegations would lead him to take his own life.
A judge rejected his injunction request last week, but protected his identity until late Monday.
“I am not a sexual predator,” Walliams said, according to ITV. “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.”
“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.
