Los Angeles: American Rock musician Marilyn Manson is being sued for allegedly grooming and sexually assaulting an underage girl “multiple times in the 1990s” at the beginning of his career.
The musician whose real name is Brian Warner, has been named as a defendant in the new lawsuit, alongside his former labels Interscope and Nothing Records, reports mirror.co.uk.
Now an adult, the victim – who remains anonymous as ‘Jane Doe’ – claims counts of sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Warner denies the allegations and claims he has no recollection of meeting her 28 years ago.
The labels also face claims of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, amongst other allegations by Doe.
Doe’s attorneys claim Warner’s “paedophilic obsessions and violent behaviours” were not only “known by Interscope and Nothing Records”, but they were “celebrated and promoted for their collective financial gain”.
Brian reportedly first met Doe in 1995 when she was 16-years-old where he allegedly “used his role, status, and power as an adult and performer in the music industry to gain access to, groom, manipulate and exploit” her, resulting in alleged “sexual assault in two separate incidents”.
It is claimed that in 1999, when Doe was 19-years-old, Warner “perpetuated his grooming, manipulation, exploitation and sexual assault of her over the course of approximately 4 weeks”.
Within the lawsuit, it is claimed that on their first meeting in 1995, Doe was invited to Warner’s tour bus following a gig in Dallas, and she (Jane Doe), was with “one of the other younger girls”.
It is claimed that Warner asked their age and school grade before taking down their home address and phone numbers.
“While on the tour bus, Warner performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon the plaintiff, who was a virgin at the time, including but not limited to forced copulation and vaginal penetration,” the lawsuit claims.
It was claimed that “one of the band members watched Warner sexually assault Doe”.
“Doe was in pain, scared, upset, humiliated and confused. After he was done, Warner laughed at her. Then Warner demanded the plaintiff to ‘get the f*** off my bus’ and threatened plaintiff that, if she told anyone, he would kill her and her family.”
Doe claims that a crew member gave her a number for the band and a password so she and Warner could meet again.
Doe claims in the suit that Warner would call her and chat with her online asking for explicit photos of her and her friends, reports mirror.co.uk.
It was later that year that Doe claims Brian convinced her, still aged 16, to travel to a New Orleans concert before he “groomed” her by complimenting her artwork.
“After the second assault, defendant Warner acted in a kinder manner nicer to Plaintiff and told her that he wanted to see her again.”
Doe reportedly continued her contact with Brian and the band and aged 18, while dating then-Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna, they met again.
She attended a Marilyn Manson concert where a band member encouraged her to attend a 1999 Dallas concert. She also went to the next show, in New Orleans, according to the lawsuit.
It was there that a crew member helped her get backstage for an audience with Warner. A member of Warner’s retinue allegedly told her he would continue to give her backstage passes.
The suit claims: “The atmosphere backstage always included the availability of large amounts of drugs for her and others to use.”
Doe claims she spent the next four weeks on the road with the group, taking drugs and spending hours with Warner in which he’d “groom, harass, and sexually abuse” her.
Doe’s attorney Jeff Anderson told Rolling Stone: “This suit by this survivor is a giant step in bringing light and heat to an industry that has been hiding perils in plain sight.
“It’s time to face the music. New laws give survivors the time to take real action for justice and protection. Powerful new laws in New York and California give adult survivors the chance to take legal action against predators and those that protect and profit from them.”
Warner’s attorney, Howard King, told the Mirror in a statement: “Brian Warner does not know this individual and has no recollection of ever having met her 28 years ago.”
“He certainly was never intimate with her. She has been shopping her fabricated tale to tabloids and on podcasts for more than two years. But even the most minimal amount of scrutiny reveals the obvious discrepancies in her ever-shifting stories as well as her extensive collusion with other false accusers.
“If anyone actually compares the vicious lies in the new complaint with the contents of prior interviews this woman has given to the press and on podcasts, the remarkable inconsistencies will demonstrate why this misguided action will not survive legal examination. Brian will not submit to this shakedown – and the courts won’t fall for it either.”
–IANS
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