Follow-Up: London Police Open Investigation Into Serious Sexual Offence Allegations Involving Children's Author David Walliams
London's Metropolitan Police said on November 13 that it had opened an investigation into allegations of serious sexual offences involving British comedian and best-selling children's author David Walliams. The Guardian and ITV News published a joint investigation on Tuesday in which multiple women accused Walliams of abusing his fame to prey on young women who were teenagers or in their early twenties. Walliams denies the allegations, which are unproven, and no one has been charged.
Police said in a statement that they had received a number of allegations of non-recent serious sexual offences involving a man now in his 50s, separate from those reported by the Guardian and ITV News, and that detectives were also reviewing the two outlets' material to see whether it included evidence of offences. As is customary, police did not name Walliams. Detective Superintendent Mike Cagney, who is leading the investigation, encouraged anyone who has been the victim of a sexual offence to come forward, no matter when it happened. Walliams' lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Walliams, 55, has sold more than 60 million books and was a judge on Britain's Got Talent from 2012 to 2022. He had sought an injunction in London's High Court to block the two outlets from publishing the allegations, arguing that publication could lead him to take his own life again. Mr Justice Nicklin rejected the application on November 3, finding that publication would pose a risk to Walliams' life but that suicide was not inevitable, and that an injunction would be an exceptionally serious interference with the media organisations' rights. Walliams did not appeal by the November 9 deadline, and the investigation was published.
His publisher HarperCollins stopped publishing his new titles in December 2025, and his literary agent dropped him after the allegations were published. The BBC has already removed and begun reviewing programmes featuring him.
(Source: Metropolitan Police)
Source: Metropolitan Police
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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