US singer Marilyn Manson under investigation over domestic abuse allegations
- Actress Evan Rachel Wood named the singer as her abuser in a recent social media post
- Manson has denied the allegations of abuse, calling his accusers’ statements ‘horrible distortions of reality’
US singer Marilyn Manson, facing a growing number of sexual and physical abuse accusations, is now the target of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s criminal investigation into allegations of domestic violence.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Special Victims Bureau is investigating allegation(s) of domestic violence involving Mr Brian Warner also known as ‘Marilyn Manson,’ who works in the music industry,” the department said in a statement. “The incidents occurred between 2009 and 2011 when Mr Warner lived in the city of West Hollywood.”
Manson has denied the allegations of abuse, calling his accusers’ statements “horrible distortions of reality.” His representatives did not make a response to the launch of the new criminal investigation.
Investigators did not specify who made the allegations against the performer, but the dates coincide with his relationship with Evan Rachel Wood, star of HBO’s Westworld.
Wood, who had previously testified in congressional and state hearings as a victim of sexual and domestic violence but not identified the perpetrator, named the singer as her abuser in a recent social media post. When she was 19 and he was 37, Wood and Manson began publicly dating in 2007, and they got engaged in 2010 before splitting up in August of that year.
“He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years,” the actress wrote in her Instagram post that led several other women in relationships with Warner to also come forward with allegations. “I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail.