Note: This article includes details of alleged assault that readers may find disturbing.
Marilyn Manson has been sued by a woman who claims that the musician sexually abused her in the 1990s when he was an adult and she was a minor, Rolling Stone reports and Pitchfork can confirm.
The lawsuit was filed in a New York court today (January 30) and also names Interscope Records and Nothing Records (John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor’s former Interscope subsidiary) as defendants. The woman is identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe. Formally, the lawsuit accuses Manson of sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and accuses Interscope and Nothing of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Doe is seeking unspecified damages.
According to the complaint, Jane Doe first met Marilyn Manson (whose real name is Brian Warner) at age 16 after attending his September 15, 1995, concert in Dallas, Texas. She, along with “three other underage female fans,” were apparently waiting outside the venue to meet Manson. The musician allegedly asked the girls “what each of their ages were, what grades in school they were in, and where their parents were at the time,” before inviting Jane Doe “and one of the other younger girls onto the tour bus.”
On the tour bus, according to the lawsuit, “Warner performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon Plaintiff [Jane Doe], who was a virgin at the time, including but not limited to forced copulation and vaginal penetration.” The lawsuit continues, “One of the band members watched Defendant Warner sexually assault Plaintiff. Plaintiff was in pain, scared, upset, humiliated and confused. After he was done, Defendant Warner laughed at her. Plaintiff is informed and thereon alleges that all of the sexually abusive and harassing conduct alleged herein was done to satisfy Defendant Warner’s own prurient sexual desires. Then Defendant Warner demanded Plaintiff to ‘get the fuck off of my bus’ and threatened Plaintiff that, if she told anyone, he would kill her and her family.”
Following the alleged assault, Manson’s manager apparently gave Doe a phone number and password to “‘stay in touch’” with Manson and the band. Manson, in turn, allegedly began to call Doe at her home, “soliciting Plaintiff to send explicit sexual photos of her and her friends to his fan club, Satan’s Bakesale.”
On December 9, 1995, after more communication with Manson, Doe allegedly attended his concert in New Orleans and was again brought to the musician’s tour bus after the show. On the bus, the lawsuit states, Manson “groomed Plaintiff by complimenting her, playing with her hair and looking at the photos and drawings she brought with her.” In addition, Manson allegedly sexually assaulted Doe, as did “[a]nother man involved with the tour.”