Neil Gaiman

"Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Trans rights are human rights. I’m sorry that some people have such a hard time getting their heads around that." Neil Gaiman, August, 2021

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New Tortoise Media podcast reveals sexual assault allegations against author Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has been accused of sexual assault by two former partners in the first claims of misconduct against him, according to a four-part investigative podcast by Rachel Johnson, Paul Caruana Galizia and Katie Gunning for Tortoise Media released on Wednesday 3 July.

Mr Gaiman’s account strenuously denies the women’s allegations, describing all sex with them as consensual. 

The allegations span two decades and concern young women who have come into contact with Mr Gaiman – the bestselling author of The Sandman, Good Omens, and American Gods – as a nanny to his child and as a fan of his writing. 

Scarlett – her first name – reported Mr Gaiman to the police in Auckland in October 2022, alleging that he sexually assaulted her on the first day she went to work for Mr Gaiman as a nanny in New Zealand on 4 February 2022. Mr Gaiman’s account of this alleged assault is that they only cuddled and made out in the bath and that he had established consent for this. 

In May 2022, months after her employment had ceased, she signed an NDA with Mr Gaiman. The NDA was backdated to her first day of work – 4 February 2022.

The other woman, K – her first initial – was 18 when she met Mr Gaiman, at a screening in Florida in 2003. K was a young fan. A sexual relationship developed when she was 20 and he was in his mid-forties with rough sex right from the start, which she says she never wanted or enjoyed but felt compelled to take. Mr Gaiman’s position is that BDSM is lawful between consenting adults. 

K alleges that when in Cornwall in April, 2007 Mr Gaiman performed non-consensual penetrative intercourse on her even after she had repeatedly asked him not to, as she had a urinary tract infection – an allegedly non-consensual act that left her in “screaming agony.” And one that Mr Gaiman’s account denies.

Both women said Mr Gaiman asked them to call him “Master.” 

“Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman” includes interviews with Scarlett and K, Harvey Weinstein whistleblower Zelda Perkins, as well as the last media interview with the late Evan Stark, whose pioneering work on coercive control changed laws around the world.

All five episodes are available on Tortoise’s Slow Newscast podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all podcast apps.

CREDITS: 

Reporters – Rachel Johnson and Paul Caruana Galizia

Producer – Katie Gunning

Sound design & original music – Tom Kinsella

Executive producers and editors: Matt Russell and Jasper Corbett

Artwork – Jon Hill

For more information or queries, please contact Andrew Butler at Tortoise Media: andrew.butler@tortoisemedia.com