Marilyn Manson has been accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a teenaged girl in the 1990s.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Nassau County Supreme Court in New York, “Jane Doe” claims she met Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, after his concert in Dallas in 1995.
Manson performed on Sept. 15, 1995 in Dallas as part of his Smells Like Children tour.
Doe, who was 16 at the time, said she and another girl were invited onto Manson’s tour bus, where he allegedly “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct.” (The age of consent in Texas is 17.) She claims one of Manson’s band members watched the sexual assault.
“Plaintiff was in pain, scared, upset, humiliated and confused,” the lawsuit reads. “After he was done, Defendant Warner laughed at her. … Then Defendant Warner demanded Plaintiff to ‘get the f**k off of my bus’ and threatened Plaintiff that, if she told anyone, he would kill her and her family.”
Doe alleges that Manson kept in contact with her via phone and online chat, including asking for explicit photos of her and her friends. He convinced her to meet him in New Orleans later that year (he played in the city on Dec. 9, 1995) and “again sexually assaulted” her. (The age of consent in Louisiana is 17 and Doe was still 16.)
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Doe’s lawsuit claims that at 18 she spent four weeks on tour with Manson, who would “groom, harass, and sexually abuse” her.
“Defendant Warner often made Plaintiff feel alone and isolated by telling her that no one understands her other than him, which included her family,” the complaint alleges. “At the time, Plaintiff believed Defendant Warner and was compelled to keep following him.
“Defendant Warner often coerced Plaintiff to have sex with him and other band members or his assistant at the same time. Defendant Warner controlled what Plaintiff could do, who could touch Plaintiff, and who he wanted Plaintiff to be with sexually, all while providing Plaintiff with drugs.”
Doe is suing for sexual battery as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress and is seeking unspecified damages.
She named Nothing Records – the label founded by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor – and Interscope as defendants, alleging they knew about Manson’s alleged behaviour but failed to do anything “to prevent pre-sexual grooming and sexual harassment, molestation, and assault of fans, including minors and women.”
None of the defendants have commented on the lawsuit and none of the allegations have been proven in a court.
Several women have gone public in recent years with allegations of sexual assault against Manson. One lawsuit against him was dismissed after the plaintiff failed to meet a court deadline and another was recently settled out of court. Manson sued his ex Evan Rachel Wood for defamation after she made accusations of sexual abuse in 2021. At the time, he countered in a statement on social media: “Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality. My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how – and why – others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.”