Hands trembling and with a haunted look in her eyes, a young fan of David Walliams showed me a letter on her phone from a celebrity legal firm.
asserted
fan → tremble → firm
The year was 2020 and the young woman in question was then aged 22 when we met near her West Midlands home.
asserted
we → meet → home
The letter which so alarmed her had been sent almost four years previously when she was just 18 and referred to a friendship she had with the comedian and author.
But the visceral fear she had felt at receiving such a strongly worded missive had clearly not dimmed with the passage of time.
Solicitors at the London-based firm Schillings told her that she was ‘at significant risk of committing a serious civil offence’ should she disclose ‘private or purported private’ information about Walliams, almost 30 years her senior, to the Press.
At the time, Walliams was a household name and at the peak of his career.
As a judge on the must-watch Saturday night television show Britain’s Got Talent, his face was beamed into homes across the country every week.
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face → alarm → country
He was simultaneously enjoying massive success as a children’s author with titles including Mr Stink and The Boy in the Dress.
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He → enjoy → Dress
Lawyers warned the young woman in the letter that she could ‘face serious consequences’ if she was to make her story of the friendship – which included a meeting at the star’s £3.5million north London mansion –public.
uncertain
which → warn → mansion
It would, they said, constitute an infringement of his privacy.
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they → say → privacy
The woman’s story, let us be clear, did not include any accusations of sexual misconduct but was rather an account of what many might deem an ill-advised friendship between an older man at the height of his professional powers and a starstruck young fan, who was just 17 when they first met.
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they → let → powers
Yet still Walliams, via his lawyers, saw fit to issue a teenager with the sort of official letter that would cause even the most confident of adults to feel uneasy.
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confident → see → adults
And that is precisely why I am not in the least bit surprised by the revelation that Walliams, 55, is the celebrity who has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect his anonymity in recent weeks.
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who → go → weeks
As we can now – finally – report, it was Walliams who took his case to the High Court in an attempt to permanently block two news outlets, ITN and The Guardian newspaper, from publishing allegations made against him.
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who → report → him
I am not in the least bit surprised by the revelation that Walliams, 55, is the celebrity who has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect his anonymity in recent weeks, writes Katie Hind
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Hind → go → weeks
To say these allegations (all denied by Walliams) are serious is an understatement.
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all → say → Walliams
The claims are that Walliams had ‘abused his status’ to engage in ‘inappropriate and exploitative sexual activities’ with girls and young women and could ‘include potential criminal conduct’.
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Walliams → abuse → conduct
The information the news organisations had gathered was the result of a ‘wide-ranging and rigorous’ investigation that started in early 2022.
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that → gather → 2022
In it they spoke to more than 100 people with knowledge of the alleged misconduct, including more than 30 sources with first-hand accounts.
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they → speak → accounts
In an extraordinary move, Walliams’ legal team argued that publishing them would ‘highly likely lead him to commit suicide’.
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publishing → argue → suicide
During a two-day court hearing last month Walliams’ lawyers said he had twice attempted to take his own life in recent weeks.
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he → say → weeks
Gavin Millar KC, for the media outlets, warned in written submissions that preventing public interest journalism about the accusations would present an ‘ongoing risk that other young women will be subject to similar kinds of inappropriate conduct’, and would drag judges ‘into assessing the causes of suicidal ideation, which are for professionals and not for a judge’.
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which → warn → judge
And, on November 3, Mr Justice Nicklin rejected the former Little Britain star’s request.
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Nicklin → reject → request
The judge ruled that while Walliams’ claim that he would commit suicide ‘must be taken seriously’, his statements ‘do not, however establish that suicide is inevitable.
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suicide → rule → suicide
The risk is capable of being reduced through treatment.’
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risk → reduce → treatment
In relation to Walliams’ claim that his 13 year-old son would be affected by publication, Mr Justice Nicklin said there was ‘no direct evidence from the son, or from anyone speaking directly on his behalf, which enabled the Court to assess the nature and weight of the son’s own rights and interests.
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which → affect → rights
And while it is only now that Walliams can finally be unmasked, after a week in which the reporting restrictions remained while he and his team were permitted to consider an appeal, the announcement is both a significant win for Press freedom and validation for the young woman who spoke so courageously to me back in 2020.
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who → unmask → 2020
A decade on from receiving that forceful legal letter, we can now tell in full the story of a woman, now in her mid-20s, the details of which at best make for uncomfortable reading and, at worst, suggest a potential abuse of power.
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details → receive → power
The woman says she first met Walliams at the Britain's Got Talent auditions in 2015
Just 17 and studying media at college in February 2015, the young woman, who we are choosing not to name, was just another excitable fan when she applied (successfully) for tickets to one of BGT’s auditions in Birmingham via an online forum.
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she → say → forum
Once she arrived with her friends for the recording at the city’s Hippodrome theatre, she was chosen to be moved to the front of the audience – just a few feet behind Walliams and his fellow judges, Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden.
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she → arrive → Walliams
The woman and Walliams began chatting and, within hours, the former Little Britain star had sought her out on Twitter and started following her, in a move that left the awestruck teen, whose mother was battling cancer, feeling ‘giddy’ and ‘almost fainting’.
But the best, as she then saw it, was yet to come.
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she → begin → cancer
Walliams later contacted her on Twitter to ask her to be a guest at the semi-final of the show, which would be recorded at ITV’s Fountain Studios in Wembley on May 26, 2015.
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which → contact → May
‘I was freaking out that he had messaged me.
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he → freak → me
In my reply I asked if he was being serious and he told me it was for real and to email his PA.’
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it → ask → PA
Walliams said he would make the necessary arrangements for the trip.
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he → say → trip
Several weeks later she and a friend, aged 17, made their way to London from their home town 100 miles away, booking into a budget hotel so they could stay overnight.
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they → make → hotel
After the show, the woman and her friend were taken backstage to Walliams’ dressing room by his PA.
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woman → take → PA
There they were given snacks and soft drinks.
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they → give → snacks
The woman told me: ‘He kissed me on the cheek when he arrived to meet us.
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he → tell → us
His PA gave us cupcakes – it was so nice.
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it → give → cupcakes
I didn’t think anything about it, I was just so excited to be in a room with David Walliams.
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I → think → Walliams
‘He said he had watched my YouTube videos, which was a bit cringe.
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which → say → videos
My videos are just a girl in her bedroom doing her make-up.
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videos → do → up
It’s not groundbreaking.’
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It → ’ → ?
…and 54 more, not listed.
The Aporia
