The best-selling author and former Britain’s Got Talent judge was named as part of an investigation by the Guardian and ITV News involving accusations of grooming teenage girls as young as 15 and abusing his position to pursue women.
asserted
author → sell → women
Walliams, 55, has denied any wrongdoing and unsuccessfully tried to obtain an injunction to prevent the reporting of allegations against him.
asserted
Walliams → deny → him
He is yet to comment further since the publication of his name on Tuesday.
asserted
He → comment → Tuesday
One woman described her alleged encounter with Walliams, when she was 15, as a “sexual assault”, while multiple women accused him of “grooming” them as teenagers.
asserted
women → describe → teenagers
Ms Nandy pledged she would be meeting with senior media and entertainment industry members to “draw a line in the sand”.
asserted
she → pledge → sand
She added: “A decade and a half on from the revelations about Jimmy Savile and 10 years on from the Me Too movement, we must finally take meaningful steps to end abuse and harassment in sectors where the power imbalances are huge and careers are built on contacts and reputation.”
asserted
careers → add → contacts
She previously called for greater protections in the media industry following Brand’s conviction.
asserted
She → call → conviction
In a letter understood to have been sent months ago by Walliams to journalists working on the investigations, he denied being a “sexual predator”.
asserted
he → understand → investigations
The television personality said while he “behaved thoughtlessly” at times and regretted not taking people’s feelings “properly into account”, he had not broken the law.
asserted
he → say → law
The letter said: “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.”
asserted
I → say → that
Walliams sought the court injunction over concerns he would take his own life, after two previous suicide attempts.
asserted
he → seek → attempts
Judge Mr Justice Nicklin refused the bid for an injunction, ruling it would be an “exceptionally serious interference” with freedom of expression.
asserted
it → refuse → expression
On Tuesday, comedian Lucy Beaumont called for better industry standards and better procedures for raising safeguarding issues.
asserted
Beaumont → call → issues
Speaking to Sky News, she confirmed she had spoken with the Guardian about Walliams, though she had never met him.
asserted
she → speak → him
She said: “I don’t know Walliams, I haven’t worked with him but, bizarrely, it’s been a really strange day for me because, about three years ago, a young person – and it was their first job on TV – worked on a show he was on and the next show that they worked on was with me.
asserted
they → say → me
“They took me aside and said, ‘I need to tell somebody something’ and confided in me.
asserted
I → take → me
Beaumont said the young person told her they had to “take young girls” who were “definitely” over 16 to Walliams’ dressing room, adding: “He felt they were vulnerable.”
asserted
they → say → room
Speaking about the TV industry, she said there was “no proper duty of care”.
asserted
she → speak → care
Beaumont added: “These things slip through the net because, I think there will be now, but there hasn’t been a process that you can deal with.”
asserted
you → add → that
She said she had never worked with Walliams or witnessed any inappropriate behaviour from him but was “worried that these girls were young”.
asserted
girls → say → him
Presenter Jonathan Ross said he was “horrified” by the allegations about David Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand, adding that he was “genuinely unaware of their conduct”.
asserted
he → say → conduct
The Metropolitan Police confirmed it contacted the Guardian and ITV News to “ensure that any potential victims” are “made aware of how they could report any criminal allegations to police”, after the sexual misconduct claims were made.
uncertain
claims → confirm → police
One woman, named by ITV News and the Guardian as Jade, said she was 15 and Walliams was 36 when they met in August 2007 and he invited her to his house.
asserted
he → name → house
She claimed what happened to her there was “sexual assault” and “grooming”, adding: “It’s completely wrong in every way.”
asserted
It → claim → way
Walliams strongly denied to the publications that he had any sexual contact with Jade, adding that he rejects any allegations of criminal activity and he has never engaged in the grooming of young women.
asserted
he → deny → women
After the allegations emerged on Tuesday, he was also dropped by his literary agency, Independent Talent Group, and the BBC began removing his shows, including Little Britain, from iPlayer.
asserted
BBC → emerge → iPlayer
Walliams had his Labour Party membership suspended and Downing Street described the allegations as “deeply troubling”.
asserted
Street → have → allegations
The Aporia
