Marilyn Manson sued for sexual assault of a minor in the ‘90s

Content warning: This story contains discussion and description of claims of sexual assault.

A new lawsuit has been filed against Marilyn Manson, alleging that the musician groomed and sexually assault a minor in the 1990s.

Manson has been accused by multiple women, including Game Of Thrones actor Esmé Bianco and Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood, of sexual misconduct. Those claims relate to alleged incidents in the 2010s, all of which Manson has “vehemently denie[d]”.

According to Rolling Stone, the lawsuit was filed under the anonymous pseudonym Jane Doe and names Manson and his former labels Interscope and Nothing Records as defendants.

The complaint claims that Doe first met Manson after a concert in Dallas in 1995 when she was 16 years old. After she waited by his tour bus, the musician allegedly invited the plaintiff and “one of the other younger girls” onto the bus, where he is claimed to have asked for their ages, school grades, home addresses and phone numbers.

The suit continued to claim that Manson – referred to as Defendant Warner in reference to his real name, Brian Warner – “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon Plaintiff, who was a virgin at the time, including but not limited to forced copulation and vaginal penetration”.

“One of the band members watched Defendant Warner sexually assault Plaintiff,” it continued. “Plaintiff was in pain, scared, upset, humiliated and confused. After he was done, Defendant Warner laughed at her […] Then Defendant Warner demanded Plaintiff to ‘get the fuck off of my bus’ and threatened Plaintiff that, if she told anyone, he would kill her and her family.”

Doe alleges that she was given a number for the band and a password that would allow her to meet Manson again, while the artist would call her and speak with her online, during which conversations he would ask for explicit photos of her and her friends.

Later that year, Manson allegedly convinced Doe to attend his concert in New Orleans. The lawsuit claims, once there, the musician “groomed” her by complimenting her artwork and assaulted her again. She was still 16 at the time – the legal age in both Texas and Louisiana is 17.

After moving to Los Angeles when she was 18, Doe went to one of Manson’s concerts in the city and claimed to receive an invitation from one of his band members to their concert in Dallas. She said she went to that show and another in New Orleans before allegedly spending a month on tour with Manson, during which time he “groom[ed], harass[ed] and sexually abuse[d]” her.

Doe claimed she continued to stay in contact with and accompany Manson on tour and, when she was 19, alleged that he “perpetuated his grooming, manipulation, exploitation and sexual assault of Plaintiff”.

“Throughout the tour and while within the State of New York, when Plaintiff was with Defendant Warner both on concert days and on off days, Defendant Warner coerced her to have sex with him,” she claimed in the lawsuit, alleging that she was also coerced into having sex with his band members and assistant. “Defendant Warner controlled what Plaintiff could do, who could touch Plaintiff, and who he wanted Plaintiff to be with sexually, all while providing Plaintiff with drugs.”

Doe claimed that the labels Manson was signed to – Interscope Records and its imprint Nothing Records – “were well-aware of Defendant Warner’s obsession with sexual violence and childhood sexual assault” and that they should have safeguarded her from the star. “At no time did Defendant Interscope and Defendant Nothing Records have a reasonable system or procedure in place to investigate, supervise, or monitor its staff and/or agents, including Defendant Warner, to prevent pre-sexual grooming and sexual harassment, molestation, and assault of fans, including minors and women,” the lawsuit claims.

It continued to claim that the alleged abuse she suffered caused Doe “severe emotional, physical, and psychological distress, including shame, and guilt, economic loss, economic capacity and emotional loss”. She is seeking damages and an “order enjoining Defendants from future unlawful business practices including, but not limited to, exposing minors and vulnerable adults to sexual abuse and exploitation”.

Nothing Records ceased operating in 2004. It was founded by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. NME has contacted representatives for Reznor, as well as Interscope Records, for comment.

Manson has not commented on the new lawsuit but has strongly denied all previous sexual misconduct claims made against him. NME has contacted representatives for him for comment.

Earlier this month, Game Of Thrones actor Esmé Bianco and Manson reached an out-of-court settlement in her sexual assault lawsuit against the musician. She went public with her accusations in February 2021, claiming the singer’s alleged abuse between 2009 and 2011 had made her “[feel] like a prisoner”.

The exact terms of the settlement have not been revealed, but in a statement provided to NME, Bianco’s lawyer confirmed the actor had agreed to resolve her claims against Brian Warner and Marilyn Manson Records, Inc. in order to move on with her life and career”.

At the start of this year, another sexual assault case against Manson was dismissed by a court in California. The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by model and entertainer Ashley Morgan Smithline and accused the musician of sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unlawful imprisonment and more.

The suit was dropped after Smithline’s lawyer withdrew as her representation in October 2022, and she did not meet a deadline of December to acquire new representation or represent herself. Her claim could be refiled with new representation.

For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.

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