Police open investigation
London's Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation into reports of alleged serious sexual offences involving entertainer and author David Walliams, according to a police statement reported by BBC News. The force said it had received multiple allegations concerning non-recent offences involving a man now in his 50s.
Police said the allegations forming the criminal investigation are separate from claims published earlier in the week by ITV News and the Guardian. Detectives are nevertheless reviewing those media reports to determine whether they contain evidence of offences. Specialist officers are supporting people who have approached police.
No charge has been announced, and the opening of an investigation does not establish criminal responsibility. Walliams has denied criminal wrongdoing. Responding to the earlier media allegations, he said he was not a sexual predator, had not broken the law and had never groomed young women. He also strongly denied an allegation of sexual contact with a girl who was 15 at the time.
Detective Superintendent Mike Cagney encouraged anyone who has experienced a sexual offence to contact police regardless of when it occurred. He said specialist officers could support people making reports and guide them through the process.
Separate media allegations under review
ITV News and the Guardian reported allegations from several women who did not know one another. Their accounts included claims of unwanted sexual advances and inappropriate conduct in professional settings. Some women alleged that Walliams groomed them when they were teenagers. Those claims remain allegations, and police distinguished their current investigation from the matters described by the news organisations.
The reports became public after Walliams lost a legal attempt to prevent their publication. They also included claims concerning interactions at publisher HarperCollins and at ITV's Britain's Got Talent. The supplied evidence does not indicate that police have validated those accounts; the Metropolitan Police said detectives were reviewing the reporting for possible evidence.
In a written response addressed to journalists, Walliams acknowledged that he had sometimes behaved thoughtlessly in casual relationships and said he regretted failing to take other people's feelings properly into account. He rejected the suggestion that he had abused the power imbalance associated with fame and denied allegations of criminal activity.
Walliams became widely known through the BBC sketch show Little Britain, later served as a judge on Britain's Got Talent and wrote a commercially successful series of children's books. Those public roles explain the substantial attention to the allegations, but they do not alter the legal standard applying to the investigation.
The next formal developments would come from police decisions about evidence, interviews or potential charges. Until then, the case remains an active investigation into allegations, with Walliams' denials and the presumption that accusations have not been proven central to accurate reporting.
