Broadcasters were today claimed to have failed to act on allegations about David Walliams grooming teenage girls as he continued to be on TV for many more years.
TV agent Dermot McNamara said he had reported allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ against the actor to the authorities and broadcasters at the time.
But he claimed nothing appeared to have been done, with Walliams allowed to remain on screen for ‘many, many years’ and ‘be involved with other young people’.
Walliams, 55, was named as part of an investigation by the media yesterday after he tried to obtain an injunction to prevent the reporting of allegations against him.
Mr McNamara has represented someone allegedly groomed by the ex-Britain’s Got Talent judge, who has been accused of sexual misconduct and abusing his power.
Another woman described her alleged encounter with Walliams, when she was 15, as a ‘sexual assault’, while others accused him of ‘grooming’ them as teenagers.
Mr McNamara told the BBC’s Newsnight of his former client: ‘She was 16 when she first met him. He had followed her on social media and had invited her to Britain’s Got Talent screenings, introduced her to the judges, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon.
‘There were photos, she was invited backstage with a group of friends of similar ages, still very young-looking.
David Walliams is accused of sexual misconduct and abusing his power to groom teenagers
TV agent Dermot McNamara told the BBC’s Newsnight that he had reported allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ against Walliams to the authorities and broadcasters at the time
‘Following on from that she was then invited along with another girl to his home where inappropriate behaviour happened – or, she feels inappropriate behaviour happened.’
He said this had a ‘profound effect on her mental health and her wellbeing’, making it a ‘struggle to see him in the media, still getting jobs, still being able to conduct himself in public life, raising money for charity, being allowed in people’s classrooms, school rooms, children’s bedrooms with his books’.
Mr McNamara continued: ‘I think the enablement around it all, how everyone was very scared to say anything about it, was real and true – and I know that was a frightening time for her and also many of the girls and women involved.’
Presenter Victoria Derbyshire then asked him: ‘Did you report this?’
He replied: ‘I reported it to authorities and broadcasters.’
Ms Derbyshire added: ‘Did anything happen?’
Mr McNamara responded: ‘Not that I’m aware of, no. He was still on TV for many, many years – he was still allowed to, by the sounds of it, be involved with other young people. No, as far as I’m aware, no.’
Walliams denies any wrongdoing.
In a letter understood to have been sent several months ago by Walliams to journalists at ITV News and the Guardian working on the investigations, the television personality denied being a ‘sexual predator’.
He said he recognised he ‘behaved thoughtlessly’ at times, and regretted not taking people’s feelings ‘properly into account’, but insisted he had not broken the law.
The letter added: ‘Whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that I never did.’
Meanwhile comedian Lucy Beaumont said the TV industry needs better procedures for people to raise safeguarding issues as she revealed she was among people who spoke to the Guardian about allegations involving Walliams.
The 43-year-old said she raised concerns about Walliams after being told he was hosting teenage girls in his dressing room while working on a TV show and she was ‘worried’ about whether he had behaved inappropriately.
Lucy Beaumont said the TV industry needs better procedures for people to raise safeguarding issues as she revealed she was among people who spoke to the media about Walliams
Beaumont discussed her response to the allegations involving Walliams while appearing on Sky News’ The Cathy Newman Show yesterday, saying she ‘wants to protect young women’ in the TV industry.
‘I don’t know Walliams, I haven’t worked with him but, bizarrely, it’s been a really strange day for me because, about three years ago, a young person – and it was their first job on TV – worked on a show he was on and the next show that they worked on was with me.
‘They took me aside and said, ‘I need to tell somebody something’ and confided in me. Some of (Walliams’) conduct that they were really worried about.’
Beaumont said the young person told her they had to ‘take young girls’ who were ‘definitely’ over 16 to Walliams’ dressing room, adding: ‘He felt they were vulnerable.’
She added: ‘At the time, he didn’t think there was a process, a way to let people know within the TV company what was happening and how he felt and I was really worried.’
The Hull-born star added: ‘I did as much as I could do privately. Whenever I’ve heard a rumour about anyone, I’ve done everything I can. There’s only so much you can do. I’m not the police. Nothing seems to be illegal.
‘But I was really worried, and I was one of the whistleblowers. I was one of the people to let The Guardian know.’
Speaking about the TV industry, she added: ‘There’s no proper duty of care. There’s no social services that you deal with and it’s partly because the industry is very well-managed.’
She added: ‘These things slip through the net because, I think there will be now, but there hasn’t been a process that you can deal with.’
Beaumont said she had never worked with Walliams or witnessed any inappropriate behaviour from him but was ‘worried that these girls were young’.
The comic said she reached out to an alleged victim who was ‘in a really bad way’ and was worried about her well-being but said the woman ‘declined my offer of support’.
Lilly Creightmore told the BBC’s Newsnight that she is ‘angry’ at David Walliams’s behaviour
She said she did not know if the allegations were true but had wanted to help.
Beaumont said she believed speaking out about her concerns might cost her TV work: ‘The reason high-profile people are not saying anything is because they lose work, because you’re seen that you might be a trouble causer.
‘It does need to be said that there needs to be some intervention.’
Beaumont started her career as a comedian in 2009 and is a vocal critic of misogyny, sexism, and inappropriate male behaviour on the UK comedy circuit and has also spoken about the impact this had on her career.
She has previously discussed ‘predatory’ male behaviour in her industry and said people did not believe the women who were speaking up.
Walliams has not yet responded to yesterday’s reports that have named him as the subject of the allegations.
It follows his unsuccessful attempts to seek an injunction to prevent the publications because of the risk he would take his own life, after two previous suicide attempts.
Judge Mr Justice Nicklin refused the bid for an injunction, ruling it would be an ‘exceptionally serious interference’ with freedom of expression.
The Metropolitan Police said it has contacted the Guardian and ITV News ‘to ensure that any potential victims’ are ‘made aware of how they could report any criminal allegations to police’, after the sexual misconduct claims were made.
Several sources alleged inappropriate behaviour towards women at Britain’s Got Talent, where Walliams served as a judge from 2012 to 2022, and his publisher HarperCollins, which dropped him last year.
A spokesperson for HarperCollins UK said the publisher ‘previously terminated its publishing relationship’ with Walliams, adding: ‘We take the safety of our people incredibly seriously.’
He was also dropped by his literary agency, Independent Talent Group, after the allegations were published and the BBC started to remove his shows, including Little Britain, from iPlayer.
Walliams had his Labour Party membership suspended and Downing Street described the allegations as ‘deeply troubling’.
Meanwhile TV presenter Jonathan Ross said he was ‘horrified’ by the allegations about Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand, adding that he was ‘genuinely unaware of their conduct’.
The 65-year-old made the comments after footage resurfaced of him joking about Walliams and 15-year-olds at the British Comedy Awards in 2004.
Ross said: ‘I am as horrified by the revelations about David Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand as the rest of the nation.
‘There was a time in my life when I was on friendly terms with both men, and during that period I was genuinely unaware of their conduct.
‘My thoughts are with the many, many women who have bravely come forward.’
The Jonathan Ross Show host has faced scrutiny over his past association with Brand, who was jailed on Monday for ten-and-a-half years for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.
Ross appeared on several television shows alongside Brand and also featured on his BBC Radio 2 show in 2008, when the pair became embroiled in a scandal involving Georgina Baillie.
The incident, dubbed ‘Sachsgate’, saw the pair leave a voicemail for her grandfather, actor Andrew Sachs, during which they made explicit comments about a relationship she had with Brand.
In his statement, Ross also addressed his controversial joke about Walliams and said: ‘I recognise how deeply shocking it is to revisit footage of a joke delivered by me at the Comedy Awards in 2004, in which I make light of the notion of Walliams going home with a 15-year-old.
‘This joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards script writing team and I believed that the punchline was a reference to the fact he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect.
‘It is also a tasteless joke that I would not dream of making today about anyone, but that is beside the point.
‘Had I had any reason to suspect that it might be referring to actual events, I would not only have refused to use it, but I would not have felt comfortable continuing a personal or professional relationship with him.
‘I also like to think that I would have acted upon that knowledge.’
Allegations made in the reports by ITV News and the Guardian include one from a woman known as Jade, who alleges what she describes as ‘sexual assault’ and ‘grooming’ after meeting him in 2007 when she was 15 and he was 36.
Another woman, named by the news organisations as Alex, also accused Walliams of grooming her, and alleged she was having sex with him by the time she was 17.
A model, named as Ella, alleges Walliams tried to kiss her when they were alone after she met him at a party in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 36.
Another former model who claims Walliams groomed her as a teenager has said she is ‘angry’ at his behaviour after she felt ‘pressured to share a bed with him’.
Lilly Creightmore has revealed she met the actor when she was aged 18.
She said she had a troubled home life so stayed with him in his flat, where she slept on the sofa – but claimed Walliams, then 32, asked her to stay in his bed every night.
Ms Creightmore alleged that a month after they first met, rising star Walliams told her she ‘could move in with him and basically that I could be his flatmate’.
She told the BBC’s Newsnight: ‘I felt instantly pressured to share a bed with him. In the evenings, he would sort of come and sit with me and stroke my leg.
‘One night I think he put his head in my lap and sort of be like, ‘are you sure you don’t want to come and sleep in my bed with me?’ I had an inner strength like, ‘no I’m not attracted to you in that way’… I felt I was being manipulated.’
Ms Creightmore continued: ‘I am angry, I’m suppressing it well, but just that this culture of older men in positions of power needs to go, needs to stop.
‘They’re abusing their positions, using young people and abusing young people, and people of any age of course. There are too many men in power still, that are doing this and they need to go.’
Lawyers for Walliams have said he saw Ms Creightmore as a close friend and is mortified that she feels he was grooming her, which he denies.
Walliams also denies targeting her because she was young and vulnerable and insists he did not say or do anything inappropriate.
Explaining how they first met, Ms Creightmore said Walliams ‘came into my periphery’ in 2002, when she would see him out in London.
She claimed that Walliams would ‘make a point of letting me know that he’d seen me, so he would sort of just stare at me, which I found quite peculiar’.
He had also seen her when she was on Channel 4 reality TV show Model Behaviour aged 16, according to the allegations first reported by ITV News and the Guardian.
Ms Creightmore said that she then went to a live recording of his BBC comedy show Little Britain with her mother when the first series was being produced for Radio 4.
She continued: ‘Again, throughout the recording he was sort of gawping at me every time he walked past like properly gawping, which was very odd.
‘Obviously. I was 18 at that point. But yeah found it pretty weird. Understandably. And then a few months after that, I received a letter from him at my mother’s address.’
She explained that the letter was from Walliams, who had seen her at an Agent Provocateur lingerie event.
The letter said: ‘When I saw you at the Little Britain recording, I was enraptured. Then when I saw you in Agent Provocateur, I so wanted to speak to you, but amongst all the frilly knickers I couldn’t find the words.
‘I’d love to take you out sometime. I know we’ve never spoken but you seem lovely. David Walliams.’
Speaking about the letter, Ms Creightmore said she was ‘just really confused, weirded out, but also a little bit like, yeah, being a big comedy fan a bit like surprised and… a little bit excited by it, maybe’.
She explained that she then agreed to meet him for dinner but told him she was ‘seeing someone and wasn’t interested in seeing him in a romantic way’.
Over the next few months, Ms Creightmore said Walliams invited her to events and was ‘kind of sort of trying to impress me with his other comedy friends because he knew I appreciated a lot of these people’.
Walliams then allegedly told her that she ‘could move in with him – basically that I could be his flatmate that he had a spare room’.
Ms Creightmore – who was still 18 at this point – continued: ‘Of course when I turned up he didn’t have a spare bed. I felt instantly pressured to share a bed with him. So I was just like, no, it’s fine, I’ll be on the couch. That’s where I am, I’m sleeping.’
She said that she felt pressured to have sex with Walliams, but turned down his requests.
Ms Creightmore continued: ‘Of course, when he didn’t get what he wanted over the course of I think it was a week that I was there, he started to become very moody and rude and cold.
‘And I just, yeah, obviously didn’t feel welcome and feel like it was a safe situation anymore. So I went to stay on another friend’s floor, I think.’
She added: ‘I think because of the many other allegations which I’ve been hearing about for some years now and this pattern of behaviour it just feels like my story is one piece of the puzzle of a much bigger picture of extremely inappropriate and predatorial behaviour.’
Walliams has vehemently denied all allegations made against him, rejects any allegations of criminal activity and said he has never engaged in the grooming of young women.
He also denies ‘buying’ a junior BGT employee’s silence following allegations from a man, named as Mark, who claimed he received £300 from Walliams after he walked into his dressing room and found two ‘very young people’ in there while the TV star was only wearing a towel.
A spokesperson for Fremantle UK, which makes BGT, said the company is ‘disturbed and concerned’ at the ‘serious allegations’, but added that no complaint was ever made to them about his behaviour.
A former staff member at HarperCollins said normal working practices had to be changed around Walliams and young women were not sent on their own to his home.
It is alleged he had a sexual relationship with at least one junior employee and pursued another.
Walliams has sold more than 60 million copies of his children’s books globally.
They include The Boy In The Dress, Fing and Gangsta Granny, the latter of which was turned into a one-hour BBC special in 2013, followed by a sequel starring Sheridan Smith in 2022.
Walliams’ book publisher HarperCollins dropped him in December 2025 after an investigation into allegations that he had ‘harassed’ young women, which Walliams denied.
Earlier this month, theme park Alton Towers permanently closed its World Of David Walliams attraction, which featured rides inspired by the books.
Walliams – who joined BGT as a judge in 2012 – left the panel in 2022 after he apologised for making ‘disrespectful comments’ about auditioning contestants during filming breaks in January 2020 at the London Palladium.
In 2023, Fremantle apologised and reached an ‘amicable resolution’ with Walliams after the remarks he made while on the show were leaked.
A spokesman for ITV, which broadcasts BGT, said in a statement: ‘We are very sorry to hear about the concerns that have been raised. BGT is produced for ITV by Fremantle, an independent production company.
‘Although ITV is the broadcaster of the programme, the producer has day to day responsibility for the running of the production, including all aspects of duty of care, and for ensuring compliance with all legal and regulatory obligations as well as ITV’s production and compliance guidelines.’
ITV added; ‘We expect the highest standards of all production companies who work with us, and to be notified of any duty of care concerns when they come to the producer’s attention.’
Syco Entertainment, which created BGT, said: ‘Syco Entertainment had no knowledge of the allegations described and was not made aware of them at the time.’
And a BBC spokesman said: ‘The BBC is in the process of removing some programmes, including Little Britain, while it carries out a review of all material featuring and written by David Walliams on our platforms.’
