British comedian and children's author David Walliams accused of sexual misconduct

LONDON (AP) — 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.

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.

Walliams' lawyer, Sara Mansoori, earlier told the High Court that he had made a suicide attempt when he received letters from ITN and Guardian News and Media seeking his response to the allegations. He later made another attempt, she said, and he was recently admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care.

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The case drew widespread attention in Britain because it highlighted questions over public figures' right to privacy and what media can report on the basis of public interest.

Gavin Millar, representing the media companies, has said that the allegations were gathered after "a wide-ranging and rigorous investigation" and that there was a strong public interest in publishing them.

He told the court that the investigation involved speaking to more than 100 people, and alleged that over a period of years Walliams "used his status and influence as a well-known public figure to establish contact with young women, some considerably younger than him, and that he engaged or sought to engage in seriously inappropriate conduct," according to a summary of the court judgment.

Some of the alleged conduct could amount to criminal offenses if proven, it said.

Walliams was dropped last year by publisher HarperCollins after allegations were made of inappropriate behavior. Few details were published at the time, but the Guardian reported Tuesday that there were concerns about his behavior for years, including an allegation that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior female employee.

Walliams is best known for comedy sketches on "Little Britain," a hugely popular British TV show in the 2000s, but he's also a celebrated children's book author with some 40 published titles that sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, according to his website.

Several of them, including "Gangsta Granny," have been adapted into BBC comedy dramas and stage productions.

He was also a judge for years on "Britain's Got Talent," though in 2022 he stepped down after apologizing for making "disrespectful comments" about auditioning contestants.

The BBC said Tuesday it was removing some programmes, including "Little Britain," while it carried out a review of "all material featuring and written by David Walliams on our platforms."

The literary agency Independent Talent Group also said it was dropping Walliams following the new allegations.

In dismissing the injunction bid by Walliams, Justice Matthew Nicklin said such a legal measure would mean "an exceptionally serious interference" with the rights of the media companies.

He noted that Walliams had a "serious and longstanding psychiatric vulnerability" which must be taken seriously, and said a decision allowing the allegations to be published will substantially increase his risk of suicide. However, he added that the evidence did not "establish that suicide is inevitable."

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