Grooming gangs investigator speaks out over 'appalling' David Walliams sex abuse claims

Résumé détaillé

A leading investigator of the grooming gangs scandal has broken her silence on the allegations of sexual misconduct and grooming against David Walliams, branding them "appalling".…

A leading investigator of the grooming gangs scandal has broken her silence on the allegations of sexual misconduct and grooming against David Walliams, branding them "appalling". Baroness Louise Casey, who led an audit into grooming gangs, said she was glad an injunction sought by author and TV personality David Walliams to prevent reporting of allegations against him has been lifted.

Walliams, 55, who was named this week as part of an investigation by journalists involving accusations of grooming teenage girls as young as 15 and abusing his position to pursue women, has denied any wrongdoing. Baroness Casey told Radio 4's Today Programme: "We don't prioritise and we don't think about how we protect young people. And that's partly about young people being young adults. I mean, I realise all of that gets more complicated as they get older, but come on."

She also noted that the allegations against Walliams came just days after former comedian Russell Brand's conviction for rape and sexual assault, for which he has been jailed for 10-and-a-half years. "The people abusing power, day in, day out, to groom and then rape and sexually assault largely girls and young children, is frankly appalling," she said.

"I think that there are people throughout the country that use things like injunctions not to face the law, and we have to make sure those things are changed. So I'm glad that that's happened, and I'm extremely pleased that Russell Brand is inside for 10 years."

One woman described her alleged encounter with Walliams, when she was 15, as a "sexual assault", while multiple women accused the best-selling author and former Britain's Got Talent judge of "grooming" them as teenagers.

In a letter understood to have been sent months ago by Walliams to journalists working on the investigations, he denied being a “sexual predator”. The TV personality said while he “behaved thoughtlessly” at times and regretted not taking people’s feelings “properly into account”, he had not broken…

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