Author Neil Gaiman Accused of Sexual Assault by Two Women; New Zealand Police Investigating

Author, creator of series and films Celebritiesknown for the comic book series The Sandman and the novels Good omens AND American Godshe denied sexual assault allegations made against him by two women he had relationships with at the time, Turtle media reports (via Rolling Stone).

The allegations were made during Tortoise’s four-part podcast Master: The Accusations Against Neil Gaimanpublished Wednesday. In it, the women allege “violent and degrading sex” with the perpetrator, which the women say was not always consensual.

One of the women, a 23-year-old named Scarlett, worked as a nanny for her son. She claimed that Gaiman attacked her in February 2022, just hours after they first met, while she was in a bathroom in his New Zealand home.

Gaiman told the paper that he and Scarlett “cuddled” and “kissed” in the bathtub and that it was consensual; he added that during their three-week sexual relationship, they limited it to digital penetration.

Scarlett claims that, while they were in a consensual relationship, Gaiman also sexually assaulted her with nonconsensual “violent and degrading penetrative sexual acts,” the wire service described in its investigation.

In one incident, the pain “was so painful and so violent” that she lost consciousness. “The pain was heavenly,” she said. When she asked him to stop, “he laughed and said I needed to be punished and used his belt on me,” she said in the podcast, via The TelegraphGaiman denied the allegations in Tortoise.

The second woman, who called herself K, was 18 when she first met him in 2003 at a book signing in Florida. She claims they began a romantic relationship when she was in her 20s and he was in his 40s.

While they were in a relationship, she claims she was subjected to violent and painful sex “that she neither wanted nor enjoyed.” At one point, she said he penetrated her despite her objections because she was in the midst of a urinary tract infection; the incident left her “screaming” in pain.

Gaiman denied K’s allegations and told Tortoise he was “troubled” by the accusations. (Gaiman’s representatives did not immediately return calls. Rolling Stonerequests for comments.)

According to Tortoise’s investigation, K did not file a police report. Scarlett filed a police report with New Zealand Police in October 2022.

Gaiman told Tortoise that the police did not accept his offer to cooperate with the investigation into the complaint, arguing that this demonstrated the complaint was unfounded.

But New Zealand Police told the news agency they had made “numerous attempts to speak to key individuals as part of this investigation and those efforts are ongoing”, adding that there were “a number of factors to take into account in this case, including the location of all parties”.