British author Neil Gaiman has been accused of sexual assault in lawsuits filed by a woman in the US. The legal documents were filed in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York on Monday. In January, Gaiman strenuously denied allegations of sexual assault made against him by eight women featured in a New York Magazine article. In a blog post, he said he was "far from a perfect person" but had "never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever".
In the lawsuits, the female complainant accuses Gaiman of sexual assault, battery, violating human trafficking laws, and inflicting emotional distress. The woman is seeking at least $7m (about £5.6m) in damages. Gaiman, who wrote the novel American Gods and The Sandman comic book series, as well as the children's fantasy book Coraline, has had several works turned into films and television programmes in recent years.
In July, a Tortoise Media podcast included allegations made by five women against him. Four of these women were featured in the New York Magazine article last month. Since the article, publisher Dark Horse Comics has cancelled upcoming work by Gaiman and a UK stage adaptation of Coraline has been scrapped. Be the first to get Breaking News. Install the Sky News app for free. Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News.
What has Neil Gaiman said?. Writing in response to the allegations in January, Gaiman said he had watched stories about him circulating online for months with "horror and dismay". "As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don't, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen," he wrote. "I'm far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.".
Gaiman said he had reviewed messages exchanged with his accusers, and they read like "two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again". He said he now realised he "could have and should have done so much better", that he was "emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been", and "obviously careless with people's hearts and feelings".
