David Walliams receives accusations of sexual misconduct - latest updates

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The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman.

Ciara Kelly (1:04)

On Newstalk, with Ciara.

British comedian and author David Walliams has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women and girls, including some of whom were teenagers at the time the allegations emerged. Following a Guardian and ITV news investigation, this is despite Walliams' attempt to block publication through a court injunction. And I should just warn listeners that some of the content of what we're about to speak about may be distressing to them. And I have to say, considering the week that's in it, I feel like I'm saying that far too often. And joining me now to discuss this is entertainment journalist, Caroline Frost. Good evening to you, Caroline. This has been a long time in the making in terms of there were injunctions in place. Finally, given that he did not appeal the fact that the courts had allowed this to be published, tell us what we know.

Caroline Frost (1:58)

Well, so as you said, this has been rumbling on for some time because there were reports that there was an unnamed celebrity against whom allegations had been made and that The Guardian and ITV were preparing to publish those allegations in the form, I guess we've seen this before, haven't we, with the Russell Brown Dispatches Channel 4 collaboration on allegations against him back a few years ago now. So same thing has been going on behind the scenes. And the first, most of the public have heard of this, was the knowledge that this unnamed celebrity as he was then, had pursued the courts to suppress these allegations being made public. And what made this case so extraordinary and eye-catching was that the case he made was that if they were to publish them, it might endanger his life because he would be moved to cause possible self-harm and worse. And he was saying that in the case was made, that he had made attempts on his own life before. And he was making clear, it wasn't that this wasn't an omission of guilt of any of the allegations, it was that the trauma of them being published would be the cause of his harm. So this has been rumbling along with the judge having to balance up his human rights to safety and protection and to continuance of life versus freedom of expression and justice being seen to be carried out openly and transparently. And the judge, you know, a few days ago came down on the side of freedom of expression. And at that time, people still didn't publish because there was the idea that there could be a time of appeal and they were waiting to hear from this celebrity that the time for appeal expired. And so everybody's been holding their breath since 4.3 last night when it did expire waiting, but the judge also made clear that it would be up to the Guardian and ITN who make that program for and working on this collaboration for ITV. It would be up to them to initiate publishing his name. So everyone was waiting for that to happen and it happened today and that name is David Walliams.

Ciara Kelly (3:57)

David Walliams is obviously a very well-known figure. Britain's got talent, Little Britain, a hugely fated children's author. This is a fairly exhaustive investigative piece of journalism in that it would appear that there are dozens and dozens of women who were interviewed and young women and many of them were actually schoolgirls at the time of their interactions with David Walliams were interviewed in the making of all of this.

Caroline Frost (4:29)