News broke today that author Neil Gaiman faces multiple accusations of sexual assault.
Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault and rape.
According to an exclusive by Tortoise Media, a British news website, two women have come forward accusing Gaiman of sexual assault while they were in consensual relationships with the English writer. The accounts of the women have been recorded in the publication’s four-part audio investigation.
Scarlett, a 23-year-old woman from New Zealand, alleges that Gaiman sexually assaulted her just a few hours after the two met at his New Zealand house in February 2022. At that point, Scarlett was a nanny to his child, and she divulged that the incident took place in a bath. She added that the ensuing sexual relationship was “rough and degrading,” with messages and her friends’ accounts supporting her claims.
The second accusation comes from a woman who was 18 when she first became acquainted with Gaiman at a book signing event in Florida in 2003. She says they started dating when she was 20 and the writer was in his mid-40s, and she was subjected to rough sex that “she neither wanted nor enjoyed,” including “one incident she alleges Gaiman penetrated her despite her asking him not to as she was suffering from a painful infection.”
Gaiman has categorically denied the allegations per the news outlet, maintaining that the relationships and the sexual activities were consensual throughout.
Gaiman also added that he had offered his cooperation to New Zealand police following a woman’s complaint in 2022 but was turned down. On the other hand, the authorities claimed that there were a “number of attempts to speak to key people as part of this investigation and those efforts remain ongoing,” and Tortoise Media says that they have seen contemporaneous messages and other material that supports the claims.
