Marilyn Manson's former assistant has accused him of sexual assault and battery in a new lawsuit

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Marilyn Manson's former assistant has accused him of sexual assault and battery in a new lawsuit
Marilyn Manson attends The Art Of Elysium's 13th Annual Celebration.Leon Bennett/Getty Images
  • Ashley Walters, who says she worked as Marilyn Manson's assistant, filed a lawsuit against the singer.
  • Per The Cut, the complaint alleges that Manson sexually assaulted, battered, and harassed Walters.
  • Walters also accused Manson of offering her "up to his influential industry friends and associates."
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A woman who says she worked as Marilyn Manson's assistant has accused him of sexual assault, battery, and harassment in a new lawsuit, obtained by The Cut.

Ashley Walters filed a lawsuit against Manson, whose birth name is Brian Warner, in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California on Tuesday.

The Cut reports that according to the lawsuit, Walters alleges that Manson forced her to work for two days straight, during which she says she feared Manson's angry outbursts.

Insider reached out to a lawyer representing Manson, but did not immediately get a response. Still, one of Manson's reps told The Cut that the singer "vehemently denied any accusations of assault" in connection to Walters' complaint.

Walters is one of more than a dozen women - including Manson's ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood and ex-girlfriend Esmé Bianco - who have accused Manson of abuse. In late April, Bianco was the first woman to take legal action against the singer when she sued him for sexual assault.

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Manson has previously denied the women's allegations of abuse, calling them "horrible distortions of reality" in an Instagram statement he released in early February.

Marilyn Manson's former assistant has accused him of sexual assault and battery in a new lawsuit
Marilyn Manson performing a show in 2009.Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images

Walters, who was then 26 and an aspiring photographer, first met Manson in 2010 after he contacted her via social media about a potential collaboration, she told The Cut.

She visited the singer's home in West Hollywood, California, according to the lawsuit, and was asked to stay late into the night for an impromptu photo shoot. Walters said Manson asked her to take off her shirt. The complaint detailed that the aspiring photographer was "not opposed to provocative art in theory," but because Manson "insisted" it "caused her to pause."

Walters agreed to pose for him with her bra on, and said the musician "bit her ear while grabbing her hand and placing it in his underwear," the lawsuit said. The former assistant later told The Cut she managed to roll off the bed, which led her to question whether or not the interaction was sexual assault.

Three months later, according to the complaint, Manson asked Walters to be his personal assistant, an opportunity she said she couldn't pass up - financially or professionally.

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"She knew it could be an incredible opportunity to become involved in the creative entertainment field," the complaint read, "one that would not be likely to come around again."

Walters alleged that constant threats (including a photo of Bianco's cut-up back) and violent outbursts followed.

"You just put your head down and you're in survival mode," she told The Cut. "At the time I felt isolated, like I couldn't go anywhere."

A post shared by Ashley Walters (@smashleywalters)

In the lawsuit, Walters also accused Manson of pushing her onto his "influential industry friends and associates." She said at an awards show the singer "pushed" her onto the lap of an actor, who kissed her, in September 2010. The following month, she alleged that Manson introduced her to a director that repeatedly groped her, including when he put his hand up her skirt while covering her mouth.

"It made me feel like I was his property," Walters said. "It just made me feel like a piece of meat."

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The photographer said Manson grew nervous that she would speak publicly about his behavior in 2011 and began speaking negatively about her to his colleagues. In another attempt to dissuade Walters from coming forward, she said he made her and several other individuals pose for pictures wearing Nazi paraphernalia with the intention of using the photos against them if they ever spoke out.

Manson ultimately fired Walters, she told The Cut, after a series of arguments. Though they didn't leave their relationship on positive terms, he tried to patch it up soon thereafter. Walters said in the complaint that she reasoned that it was better to "have him as a friend as opposed to an enemy."

It wasn't until she heard Evan Rachel Wood detail her experience of sexual abuse in a 2018 testimony in front of Congress that she decided to go public. Though the "West World" actress hadn't named her abuser, Walters said she knew Wood was speaking about Manson.

Two years later, Walters said a group of the singer's exes reached out to her. They began exchanging stories.

"A lot of the isolation and a lot of the psychological abuse was very similar to what I experienced," she told The Cut. "Once I realized how many people had been affected, I couldn't sit by and let this happen to anyone else."

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