LATEST: David Walliams accused of exploiting young women for sex

Manveen (0:12)

Hi, it's Manveen. The comedian and children's author David Walliams was today named as the celebrity who lost a legal bid in the High Court to block the press from reporting allegations about his behaviour.

We can now report that he has been accused by multiple women of using his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex, allegations that he denies. We covered the controversial legal case in the High Court last week, so do go back and listen if you haven't already. We'll put a link in the notes for this episode. But in the meantime, we thought you'd want to hear the latest on today's revelations. So we're turning to our colleagues at Times Radio.

Fi Glover (1:02)

David Walliams has been named as the celebrity accused of abusing his position to exploit young women for sex. The star lost a legal bid to block the allegations from being reported. Walliams denies all the claims against him. Ollie Cole is Times Newsroom reporter. Just remind us of the details and what is now known.

Ollie Cole (1:23)

Well, let me just take you, I think, to sort of display the thoroughness of the investigation that's taken place over three years by ITV and The Guardian. I'm just going to take you through one case in particular, just to sort of rather than take you to the bullet points of each little one, just sort of display what sort of behavior we are talking about here that is alleged against David Walliams. They've changed this person's name, but they are calling her Jade. She says that in the middle of 2007, she commented on a picture of Walliams on a public Myspace page. David Walliams then returned that message to her profile, which showed at the time that she was 15 years old.

She claims that he said thanks for the comment and signed it D with a kiss. About 10 minutes later, she received another message from him saying, are you there? This time Jade replied and said that he then asked for her number and he called her within minutes from a withheld line. Paul was mostly chit chat like where I lived, what I do in school. That's what Jade had to say. Now, just after Walliams' 36th birthday in late August of that year, Jade was in London and says that the two met up in Soho in a coffee shop.

Jade says she was very shy at the time, quite quiet. So Walliams asked a fair few questions. First, it was a bit about school, but it wasn't long, she says, until he asked me if I'd ever had sex before. I said I hadn't, I didn't like talking about that sort of stuff. And Jade said that she confided in Walliams that she'd been sexually abused when she was younger, and Walliams said he was sorry to hear that. A little while later, Walliams invited her to his house and she agreed to go. They went in his Aston Martin to the house. And this is where Jade recalls Walliams asking her to come over to him for a hug, him kissing her.

Then, Jade says, he lifted my top up and sucked on my breast and then tried to put my hand down his trousers. That's when I pulled away and said no. She said he had an erection at the time. I wasn't ready for sex. I didn't want to do that with him or anyone. I was only a 15-year-old. So that's just one of the allegations. But I think sometimes in these stories you can get sort of lost in the bullet point of what is alleged against people after these quite large investigations. Now David Walliams has denied all wrongdoing. He's put out quite a lengthy statement. But in all, as well as that particular circumstance that she describes as a sexual assault, multiple women are accusing him of grooming them when they were teenagers. One says he began contacting her when she was 15 after meeting her at a Little Britain fan event before starting his sexual relationship with her at 17

He's accused of inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment at Britain's Got Talent and at a publisher, HarperCollins. And he has denied all those allegations, saying, I am not a sexual predator. And he insists he has not broken the law. So that's where we are this afternoon. It's not gone to court. This hasn't been tested. But this is the result of a three year investigation, which has obviously now been able to be reported after that bid for an injunction by Walliams and his team.

Fi Glover (4:36)

Many organisations and people have spent some time distancing themselves from David Walliams, and not just since these allegations have surfaced today.