More Horrifying Allegations Have Been Made Against Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson has been accused of sexual assault, sexual battery, and human trafficking, in a lawsuit filed in California this week.

— Content Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault and abuse. — 

As per The Cut, model Ashley Morgan Smithline filed the lawsuit on Tuesday — she’s the fourth person to officially file a lawsuit against the artist, whose real name is Brian Warner, and is one of more than a dozen women to come forward with allegations against him in the last few months.

According to the complaint filed in the Federal District Court of California, Smithline and Manson began a consensual relationship in 2010, and Smithline moved in with the singer. But “it quickly became apparent that consensual sex was not enough”, with Smithline alleging Manson sexually assaulted her multiple times during their relationship, and was physically choked, strangled, and smothered by him. Smithline also claims that Manson “branded her”, and cut her with a “knife emblazoned with a swastika”.

Elsewhere in the complaint, Smithline alleges Manson denied her food and sleep, would keep her locked in a glass enclosure called the “the bad girls’ room”, and would force her to take cocaine to keep her awake. In one incident, Smithline claims Manson broke her nose while she resisted him.

Smithline is seeking damages for human trafficking, claiming that Manson lured her to the U.S. to work on a project that was never released, expecting repayment in “labor and sexual intimacy.”

Manson denies the allegations. “There are so many falsehoods within her claims that we wouldn’t know where to begin to answer them,” a spokesperson for the singer said, as reported by The Cut. “This relationship, to the limited extent it was a relationship, lasted less than a week in 2010. Manson hasn’t seen Ms. Smithline since then.”

Manson is currently under investigation over allegations of domestic violence, and has recently agreed to turn himself in on an arrest warrant relating to an alleged assault on a videographer in 2019.

Manson has repeatedly denied any allegations of abuse. After being accused of abuse by ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood and four other women back in Febuary, Manson released a statement saying his life and art had “long been magnets for controversy”.

“These recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,” he wrote. “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.”