Marilyn Manson reportedly settles sexual assault lawsuit a week ahead of trial

29 September, 2023

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

Marilyn Manson has reportedly settled a sexual assault and rape lawsuit with his accuser a week ahead of the case going on trial.

According to a Rolling Stone report, the settlement between Manson and his accuser – known only as Jane Doe to protect her identity – was reached on Wednesday (September 27) and that a notice of settlement was filed that day by Doe’s attorney Adam Wolf. Wolf will also reportedly file a request to dismiss the case within 45 days.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2021 after Doe, who claims to be an ex-girlfriend of Manson, alleged that Manson raped her in June 2011 when she went to return a key for his apartment, threatening to kill her afterwards.

When contacted by NME for comment after the initial lawsuit was lobbied against the musician in 2021, a member of Manson’s team “strongly denied the accusations”.

Details of the settlement have not been revealed at the time of publishing.

Doe has now come to a settlement with Manson, telling Rolling Stone in a statement: “I was fully prepared for trial and never in a million years thought I would ever settle, but over the past two-and-a-half years I have silently endured threats, bullying, harassment and various forms of intimidation that have intensified over the past few weeks.”

“Marilyn Manson attended my deposition, and I was forced to answer seven hours of aggressive questioning with him staring at me from across the table. I’ve been told that this almost never happens, as it’s cruel, and that a main reason for it would be to intimidate and inflict emotional distress on a victim,” Jane Doe added.

Doe went on to explain: “I never cared about money and only ever wanted justice, but if we had gone to trial, I could have lost my right to anonymity and been victim-blamed on a large and public scale. Most importantly I could have risked losing the freedom to tell my story, and that is worth more than anything in the world.”

Howard King, an attorney for Marilyn Manson – real name Brian Warner – said of the settlement to Rolling Stone: “Brian is pleased that, just as previous lawsuits were abandoned without payment or settled for pennies on the dollar, this plaintiff has now agreed to drop her suit in exchange for an insurance payment representing a fraction of her demands and far less than the cost to Brian of proceeding to trial.”

In the original 2021 lawsuit, Doe alleged that she had met Warner at a pre-Grammys party in 2011. The lawsuit also alleges that Manson showed Doe a film titled Groupie – which sources close to Manson claim is a “scripted short film” – filmed in 1996, which showed him tying a young fan to a chair, forcing her to drink a glass of a band member’s urine and threatening her with a gun.

Manson has over the last two years faced various lawsuits and allegations made by over a dozen women accusing him of both sexual and physical abuse. Accusers include Game of Thrones actress and former girlfriend Esme Bianco, his former personal assistant Ashley Walters and ex-girlfriend Ashley Morgan Smithline. The lawsuits filed by Walters and Smithline have since been dismissed, while Manson settled with Bianco in January.

Smithline later recanted her accusations and claimed that Manson’s former girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood — whose initial allegation of sexual abuse by Manson in February 2021 led to more women coming forth with allegations against the singer — had pressured her to make the claim, which Wood later refuted.

Following the accusations, which he has continually denied, the singer-songwriter was dropped by his label, Loma Vista.