Neil Gaiman: Prosecutor submits civil trial that claims rape, sexual abuse and human trafficking | Neil Gaiman

A woman from New Zealand has brought a civil trial against Bestselling the British author Neil Gaiman and his alienated wife, musician Amanda Palmer, who accused Gaiman of repeatedly sexually assaulted her while working as a couple’s babysitter and nanny.

Scarlett Pavlovich filed the trial of the federal court in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York on Monday. Pavlovich previously identified himself in an interview with the New York magazine that published an article in January that detailed assaults of assault, abuse and coercion that were leveled on Gaiman by several women.

Pavlovich’s trial also accuses Gaiman of rape, coercion and human trafficking and palm trees of “obtaining and presenting” her to Gaiman “for such abuse”.

Pavlovich’s lawyers declared in the archives that Gaiman, author of such bestsellers as the Coraline and Sandman series, is a resident of Wisconsin, but that they were uncertain whether Palmer is currently residing in Massachusetts or New York.

Palmer and Gaiman, who married in 2011 and have a child together, are currently getting divorced. Gaiman has denied all accusations of sexual assault against him and written in a public statement last month: “I am far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.”

After the New York Magazine article, a representative of Palmer said she was “deeply disturbed” by the allegations where the musician also wrote on social media: “As there is ongoing custody and divorce case, I am unable to give public comment. Please understand that I am a parent first and foremost.

Pavlovich claims in the trial that she was homeless and lived on a beach when she met Palmer in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2020. Pavlovich was 22 years old at the time.

According to the trial, Palmer Pavlovich invited to the couple home on Waiheke Island. Pavlovich started running errands for the couple, babysitting their son and helping with duties and eventually becoming the couple’s nanny.

Gaiman first sexually assaulted her the night they met in February 2022, according to the trial. The assaults continued, but she continued to work for the couple because she was crushed and homeless, and Gaiman had told her he would help her write a career, the trial claims.

Pavlovich claims in the trial that she told Palmer about the assaults, and she claims Palmer told her that more than a dozen women had told her in the past that Gaiman had sexually abused them.

The assaults did not stop until Pavlovich told Palmer she would kill herself, the trial said. She left the family and became homeless again, even though the documents say Gaiman eventually paid her for her work, which used the couple’s child and helped cover her rent for a few months.

Pavlovich claims in the trial that Palmer knew of Gaiman’s sexual desires and presented Pavlovich to him, knowing he would attack her. Pavlovich claims that Gaiman and Palmer violated federal ban on human trafficking and are seeking at least $ 7 million. In compensation.

After the New York Magazine article was published, Gaiman released a statement in January and said he thought his relationship with all the women was “completely consensus sexual relationships” but said, “I was emotionally unavailable while I was sexual Available, self -focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been. ”

But he added, “I do not accept that there was any abuse. To repeat I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with someone. “

Representatives of Gaiman and Palmer did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday, and online court registrations did not state lawyers who represented them in the suit.

Pavlovich’s trial says she filed a police report in New Zealand and accused Gaiman of sexual assault, but she claims “police did not take anything because Palmer refused to talk to them”.

Gaiman has worked with several publishers over the years. Two of them, Harpercollins and WW Norton, have said they have no plans to publish his books in the future. Others, including Bloomsbury, have so far refused to comment.

Dark Horse Comics announced in January that it would no longer release its illustrated series based on Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys. The seventh of eight editions were released earlier that month.

A production of Coraline has been canceled while Disney has held a planned adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Netflix is ​​still scheduled to release another season based on Sandman, but announced last week that it would be the last, in a statement that did not recognize the accusations against Gaiman.

Associated Press contributed to this report