LONDON: 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 firsthand accounts of Walliams’ conduct. One woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by Walliams at his London home when she was 15, while others accused him of grooming them when they were teens.
Walliams, 55, denied the allegations. He unsuccessfully sought a court injunction to bar the news outlets from identifying him, claiming that publication of sexual misconduct allegations would lead him to take his own life.
The court fight delayed publication for months, but a judge rejected his injunction request last week and the protection of his identity expired late Monday.
“I am not a sexual predator,” Walliams said in a letter to the news organizations. “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 toward 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.
