The Metropolitan Police is investigating David Walliams over alleged non-recent serious sexual offenses. Walliams, 55, has denied wrongdoing and said he is not a sexual predator.
London police have launched a criminal investigation into children’s author and TV personality David Walliams over alleged serious sexual offenses, the Metropolitan Police said on Friday.
The Metropolitan Police said it had received a number of allegations of non-recent serious sexual offenses involving a man now in his 50s. The force said the allegations are separate from those reported by ITV News and the Guardian, but detectives are proactively reviewing that reporting to establish whether there is any evidence of offenses.
Police declined to detail the alleged offenses or where and when they are alleged to have occurred, saying this was to minimize the chances of the people who had complained being identified. The Met said it is police policy not to name people under investigation.
Det. Supt. Mike Cagney, from the Met’s complex sexual offences unit, said: “We would encourage anyone who has been the victim of a sexual offence to come forward and speak to us, no matter when it happened.”
ITV News and the Guardian published allegations this week that Walliams used his fame to groom girls and young women for sex. One woman said in the reports that 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, has denied the allegations, saying he had not broken any laws and was not a sexual predator. In a letter to ITV and the Guardian, he said: “I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.” He added: “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.”
The Guardian and ITV said they spoke to more than 100 people during a three-year investigation into Walliams. Walliams had sought a court injunction to prevent the news outlets from identifying him, but a judge rejected the application, saying such a legal measure would be “an exceptionally serious interference” with the media’s rights.
Walliams is best known as the co-creator and co-star in “Little Britain,” a hugely popular TV comedy sketch show in the 2000s, and is a children’s book author with some 40 published titles that sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, according to his website.
Producers of “Fing!”, an upcoming film based on another book by Walliams, said in a statement Tuesday that they had removed his cameo appearance and he “will have no involvement in the film’s release or promotion.” He is credited as a co-writer. U.K. distributor Sky told Variety it was dropping the movie. Angel Studios, the U.S. distributor, did not answer The Associated Press’ emailed query about its plans for the film.
Walliams was dropped last year by publisher HarperCollins after allegations were made of inappropriate behavior. He was also a judge for a decade on “Britain’s Got Talent,” though he stepped down in 2022 after apologizing for making “disrespectful comments” about auditioning contestants.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
The day's checked news, by email
One short email a day with the top stories. Free, and you can unsubscribe in one click.
Or follow for the latest news:
No comments yet. Start the discussion.
WorldTrending
Kyle Brennan, 40, of Warrenton, Virginia, was arrested and charged with transportation of child pornography after an FBI review of his phone found approximately 88 images, prosecutors said.
Turkey and Qatar signed a mutual defence agreement pledging a unified stance against any external armed attack targeting either country, according to a joint statement.
