David Walliams is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl he met online in documentary David Walliams: Power and Silence
David Walliams used his celebrity status to groom a 15-year-old, it has been alleged.
The accuser, who is named as Jade in the joint ITV News and The Guardian investigation, alleges Walliams assaulted her in her house after they met online.
Jade says the TV star, now 55, contacted her online via MySpace, where her age was visible, after she commented on his photo.
“You get this celebrity approaching you – that’s a whole different level of attention,” said Jade. “Then you think, I must be a bit special in a way.”
After exchanging messages, Jade says they then met in a cafe in London before the comedian drove her to his home. “I was quite shy, so it was mostly him asking me questions. He asked about school. It wasn’t long before he asked me if I’d ever had sex before. I said I hadn’t. I didn’t like talking about that kind of stuff.”
Jade told the publication after they finished their coffees, Wlliams offered to walk her to a tube station and kissed her down a side street. After the kiss, Jade claims Walliams invited her back to his house where he groped her inside.
She 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’. ‘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 says Walliams agreed to stop and told her ‘we should wait until I’m 16.’ Walliams was 36 at the time and Jade says even though it was a long time ago, the experience has stayed with her for the last 19 years.
Jade told the investigation: “I struggle with it sometimes – if I think about it a bit too much, about the reality of what happened.”
Walliams strongly denies that he had any sexual contact with Jade. He says he rejects any allegations of criminal activity and says he has never engaged in the grooming of young women.
The Guardian and ITV News investigation alleges that he abused his power and position for sexual purposes on a number of occasions with teenagers and other women.
The three year investigation features a number of women telling how Walliams is said to have allegedly preyed on for sexual purposes.
Another woman says he first began contacting her when she was 15, after meeting her at a Little Britain fan event, and alleges they started a sexual relationship when she was 17.
In response to the allegations made in the investigation, Walliams denies any wrongdoing and insisting he was “not a sexual predator”.
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.”
Former Britain’s Got Talent judge Walliams is known for appearing in comedy shows including Come Fly With Me and Little Britain alongside Matt Lucas, has sold more than 60 million copies of his books globally.
They include The Boy In The Dress, Fing, and Gangsta Granny, the latter of which was turned into a one-hour BBC special in 2013, followed by a sequel starring Sheridan Smith in 2022.
He left Britain’s Got Talent in 2022 after he apologised for making “disrespectful comments” about auditioning contestants during filming breaks in January 2020 at the London Palladium.
In 2023, Britain’s Got Talent producer Fremantle apologised and reached an “amicable resolution” with Walliams after the remarks he made while on the show were leaked.
* David Walliams: Power and Silence airs tonight at 22:50 on ITV, and is available to watch now on ITV News YouTube Channel
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