David Walliams

He suggested she move in as he had a spare bed. On arriving, there was no spare bed and the expectation was for her to share his.

Ugh. We've all met this guy.

The wannabe photographer was 18 and extremely vulnerable. As a child, she was in care and at the time of meeting DW, became homeless. He suggested she move in as he had a spare bed. On arriving, there was no spare bed and the expectation was for her to share his.

She slept on the sofa for a few days and during the time she was there, he was constantly pestering her to share his bed, "pawed" at her, stroked her legs and laid his head in her lap.

She says that when she didn't give in, he became moody and cold and she felt scared for her safety so left to sleep on a friend's floor.

Yes, very pathetic but also extremely chilling and predatory.

ETA photo: Does this look like an innocuous "serious relationship" attempt?

Allegations, yes. But the fact he took it to the high court to try and silence the press is suspect. There’s also a lot that’s come out in the newspapers. A bit like a woman that Price Andrew had never met having a settlement of millions of pounds…

I think the word you mean is allegations. Not rumours.

You obviously haven't read the newspapers.

We don't yet know if David Walliams has actually done anything, so far it's just rumours.

Get a grip. You seem more concerned that I simply stated I think he’ll promptly go through with his well-publicised & narcissistic threat to try and control the narrative than anything else on this thread. I’ve not said anything out of line. Perhaps if he hadn’t behaved this way this could all be avoided and he wouldn’t be making such awful threats?

I think something should be done about NDAs too as these seemed to be abused. Perhaps if a famous person wants someone to sign one they should also have to pay for a solicitor to advise the person being asked to sign.

Very true.

You could just get one of those big hooks they used to use in vaudeville theatre to pull them off the stage. That would do it. No need for fuss or expensive court cases. Just a great big hook.

The unions act on behalf of the people paying for membership though. They don't have a regulatory role. People in the entertainment industry don't need professional qualifications to do the job or license to practice so they can't be struck off in the way that for example a doctor or other healthcare professional can.

@nicepotoftea Sounds like a good idea if the unions would come on board to support work in this area.

@nicepotoftea Harper Collins is a big enough organisation to have HR professionals who have signed up to all sorts of codes of practice, but they seem to have thought the better idea was to pay off one of their employees and try to keep it all quiet.

Yes, and they got their female staff to deal with Walliams in pairs. Yet he was let loose on book signings - getting the phone number of 15 year olds. You would have thought the publisher, or the hosting bookshop could have had a staff member on hand? But he sold 60 million books for HC ....

HarperCollins have serious questions to answer. There's no 'plausible deniability' there. Senior HR knew.

Harper Collins is a big enough organisation to have HR professionals who have signed up to all sorts of codes of practice, but they seem to have thought the better idea was to pay off one of their employees and try to keep it all quiet.

In the case of having young women in his dressing room, the young man who reported that to Lucy Beaumont could have had a clear route to report to safeguarding lead or whoever at the time or, when he mentioned it to Lucy, she would have had a clear reporting route. That would then be dealt with by the production company who would have been able to identify he had broken the rules and again could drop him on that basis.

I think the point made by Beaumont is that in that industry it's quite likely that he would have moved onto a new job anyway.

I wonder if the Entertainment Unions like Equity should be more involved? Other industries have professional bodies that can strike off members for not meeting professional standards.

At the very least, Dodgy Dave needs to give some of those books proceeds to women and children’s charities. After he tried to silence and play the legal and human rights system. It is an embarrassment and he needs to fess up and spend his cash in the right way.

@nicepotoftea Well, for example, if his publishing agency had had a clear policy or code of conduct about workplace relationships / relations between authors and junior staff or whatever, then a) it would have been obvious to the young woman involved that he was being dodgy in pursuing it and b) when it came to light the publishers could have taken action (dropped him) on the basis that he had broken their code of conduct. In the case of having young women in his dressing room, the young man who reported that to Lucy Beaumont could have had a clear route to report to safeguarding lead or whoever at the time or, when he mentioned it to Lucy, she would have had a clear reporting route. That would then be dealt with by the production company who would have been able to identify he had broken the rules and again could drop him on that basis. Tbh I don't claim to know the ins and outs of TV production, publishing and so on but it's not rocket science to set up basic safeguarding systems and processes. And as anyone who works with children and young people knows, it's about protecting everybody. So having clear rules eg saying no fans in dressing rooms, that would protect naive 'talent' who don't realise how that could look just as it would protect fans from the dodgy fuckers.

People seem to have been paralysed and unable to act in this 'everybody knew' space where the concern is how can you act when you have no proof? Well, you don't have proof that he's assaulting fans in his dressing room or inviting them in as part of an attempt to groom them. But it would be pretty easy to prove that fans were being taken into his dressing room so if that is disallowed then it becomes easy to act; 'Sorry David, you know the rules, you signed the code and you did the training only last month, we're going to have to terminate your contract'.

Yes Edwards wqs shocking.

Agree, but I think the problem is dealt with by who?

She made some interesting points about the nature of her industry. People lack job security so they don’t want to rock the boat and many people are freelance or on temporary contracts so there is no structure to complain to.

Harper Collins, though, presumably do have an HR department…

As a teen who grew up in the naughties - yes, I know all sorts of friends who were caught up with middle aged teachers (3!), sports coaches, much older men, partying bisexual men, drugs, the works, and quite a few actual rapes at parties with girls passed out. I never got unlucky myself, it was unacceptable then and it is important to talk about how unacceptable it was and is so that we can better society and protect the current generation and future generations. And most importantly, I do not intend for either of my sons to turn out that way thinking any of this is acceptable, even the instances of barely legal.

It often gets phrased as middle aged women having daughters and feeling “angry”, hell yes I am angry on behalf of some of my friends as each and everyone has suffered long term in very real ways as to what happened to them. And in each case, there was a vulnerability of some sort when it was each a teacher or sports coach. They preyed on these girls. One went to prison, many got away with shit and it is not OK.

It is disappointing because we are 10 years behind the US and the metoomovement. And at the time, I just thought maybe things weren’t as bad here. Seems like we are having a delayed reaction?

Poor girl. Tg the injunction didn’t hold up against threats from DW re his MH as otherwise similar men would use the same to avoid scrutiny.

100% @Bellu and I've just posted similar elsewhere. Basic safeguarding would have prevented much of this activity and would support a much more positive culture. So that instead of arguing over whether or not it's illegal to text a 15 year old what you think about them being in a bath, it's really clear that 'talent' don't interact with fans, particularly under-18s, unless in an organised environment. So it doesn't matter what that text says, it's clearly outwith the Code of Conduct which says how we behave in relation to fans and you can then be dealt with. Just one example. It's about preventing them, having clear systems for reporting, and having clear approaches to dealing with them. All of that supports a better culture and would really help people identify when someone is up to no good. It doesn't have to be illegal, it just has to be against the code of conduct, for example.

Obviously these men are still responsible for their actions but the culture and opportunity need to be tackled or it will keep happening.

Yes, there is a pattern that can be detected once there are enough allegations. But the powerless 19 year old that received a letter shutting her down by top law firm Schillings. This is the problem with powerful, rich men like David Walliams they can employ Jenny Afia, a renowned lawyer specialising in reputation management. They were very successful in that they managed to suppress the truth - there's something badly wrong here.