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Neil Gaiman – best-selling author whose work includes comic book series The Sandman and the novels Good omens And American Gods — denies allegations of sexual abuse made against him by two women with whom he was in a relationship at the time, Tortoise Media reports.
The allegations were made during Tortoise’s four-part podcast Master: The Accusations Against Neil Gaimanthat was released on Wednesday. In it, the women allege that they engaged in “rough and degrading sex” with the author, which the women claim was not always consensual.
One of the women, a 23-year-old named Scarlett, worked as a nanny for his child. She alleged that Gaiman assaulted her in February 2022, just hours after they first met, while they were in the bathtub at his New Zealand home. Gaiman told the outlet that he and Scarlett “cuddly” and “kissed” in the bathtub and that it was consensual; he added that during the three-week sexual relationship they had, they had only digital penetration.
Scarlett alleges that Gaiman also sexually abused her during their consensual relationship with nonconsensual “rough and degrading penetrative sexual acts,” according to the outlet’s description of his investigation. In one incident, the pain was “so painful and so intense” 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 accusation to Tortoise.
The second woman, who went by 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 mid-40s. While they were in a relationship, she claims she was subjected to rough and painful sex “that she did not want or enjoy.” At one point, she claims 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 “disturbed” by the allegations. (Representatives for Gaiman did not immediately respond Rolling stone(‘s requesting comments.)
According to Tortoise’s investigation, K did not report the incident to the police. Scarlett filed a complaint with the New Zealand Police in October 2022.
Gaiman told Tortoise that police had not followed through on his offer to assist in investigating the complaint, claiming that this demonstrated the lack of substance in the complaint. But New Zealand police told the outlet that they have “made a number of attempts to speak to key people as part of this investigation and those attempts are ongoing,” adding that there are “a number of factors to consider in this case, including the location of all parties.”