eight women testify against author Neil Gaiman – Libération

On the front page of the latest edition of New York Magazine, Neil Gaiman’s face appears large. Not to praise the world-famous author of cult works like the fantasy comic series Sandman or the distressing tale Coralineboth adapted for the screen, but to report new accusations of sexual violence against him. In an article by journalist Lila Shapiro, eight women speak, some with their identities discovered, to recount the attacks to which they were victims at the hands of the 64-year-old British writer, who lives in the United States.

The first accusations date back to this summer, when Tortoise Media revealed that Neil Gaiman had been accused of sexual assault by five women in a six-part podcast titled Master. Master, maître in French, as the name by which the author asked to be called during non-consensual sexual relations. However, most had only used their first names or pseudonyms when speaking and no major press headline had yet corroborated the extent of the reported facts. Until the article of New York Magazine.

“State of shock”

Among the eight women who testified, four had participated in the Tortoise Media podcast. One of them, Scarlett Pavlovich, was 22 when she met the writer, when he was living in New Zealand, to become his child’s babysitter. She says that the writer suggested that she take advantage of a bathtub installed in his garden before joining her completely naked and raping her. “He put his fingers directly into my anus and tried to insert his penis there. I said: “No, no.” He then tried to rub his penis between my breasts, and I also said “non”. He then asked me if he could cum on my face and I said “non”but he did it anyway, Scarlett Pavlovich tells New York Magazine. He said: “Acall me master and I’m going to cum.” He said, “Be a good girl. You are a good little girl.”

Scarlett Pavlovich recounts another time when Neil Gaiman was staying with his son at an Auckland hotel and allegedly asked her to watch the child while he had a massage. She claims he then had sex with her while her son was in the room, and continued to talk to her during the act. Scarlett Pavlovich says she asked the writer “What the fuck are you doing?” and that she was then in a “state of shock”.

Scarlett Pavlovich, however, remained in contact with Neil Gaiman, signing a confidentiality agreement not to disclose these facts in exchange for $9,200. Despite everything, she decides to file a complaint for sexual assault in January 2023, but “the case is now closed”, a police spokesperson said New York Magazine.

Non-consensual practices

Several other women report similar facts, i.e. surprise rapes, extreme non-consensual practices and, for some, money paid in exchange for their silence or to pay for psychological sessions intended to “repair the damage”. And if the article of New York Magazine specifies that all the women who testify have, in fact, at one time or another agreed to call the writer «maître», the BDSM practices imposed would never have been the subject of consent being collected.

Neil Gaiman’s lawyers told the Tortoise Media podcast that “sexual degradation, bondage, domination, sadism and masochism may not be to everyone’s taste, but between consenting adults, BDSM is legal”. As for the story told by Scarlett Pavlovich in the Auckland hotel, the writer’s lawyers believe that it is “false, not to say deplorable”.

Since the Tortoise Media revelations, several of Neil Gaiman’s film and television projects have been affected. What was supposed to be season 3 of Good Omens on Prime Video will ultimately become a single 90-minute episode, of which Neil Gaiman is removed from the production. Disney, for its part, interrupted production of its film adaptation of The Strange Life of Nobody Owens. However, season 2 of The Sandman is still planned this year on Netflix, like the adaptation of the series Anansi Boys, taken from the novel cycle American Gods, sur Prime Video.