Marilyn Manson avoids LA sex abuse charges after years-long investigation

Marilyn Manson will not face charges of sexual assault and domestic violence, the Los Angeles District Attorney has said.

For the past several years, the 56-year-old shock rocker — real name Brian Warner — had been under investigation for sexual abuse allegations brought against him by several women, including his ex-fiancee, Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood.

However, on Friday (January 24), L.A. County DA Nathan Hochman announced that the allegations were too old under the law and there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove charges of sexual assault.

“We have determined that allegations of domestic violence fall outside of the statute of limitations, and we cannot prove charges of sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt,” Hochman said. “We recognize and applaud the courage and resilience of the women who came forward to make reports and share their experiences, and we thank them for their cooperation and patience with the investigation.”

Manson’s attorney, Howard King, reacted to the decision in a statement shared with The Independent, writing: “We are very pleased that, after a thorough and incredibly lengthy review of all of the actual evidence, the District Attorney has concluded what we knew and expressed from the start: Brian Warner is innocent.”

Nearly four years after the investigation began, then District Attorney George Gascón said on October 9 that his office was pursuing new leads that added to the “already extensive” file that authorities had amassed.

L.A. County sheriff’s detectives said early in 2021 that they were investigating Manson for incidents between 2009 and 2011 in West Hollywood, where Manson lived at the time. The probe included a search warrant that was served on his West Hollywood home. The case was initially turned over to prosecutors in September 2021, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office requested more evidence-gathering and the investigation resumed.

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The identities of the women police and prosecutors spoke to were not revealed, but Game of Thrones actor Esmé Bianco — who sued Manson in a case that has been settled — said she was part of the criminal investigation. Before the decision not to prosecute, she criticized how long the process was taking at a rally for Hochman, who was elected soon after.

“Almost four years ago, I did what victims of rape are supposed to do: I went to the police,” she said on October 10. “I described to them in agonizing detail how the rock musician Brian Warner — better known by his stage name Marilyn Manson — had raped and abused me over the course of our relationship.”

Bianco said she gave investigators “hundreds of pieces of evidence, including photos of my body covered in bites, bruises and knife wounds, emails and text messages, threats to my immigration status.”

In her lawsuit, Bianco alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse, and said that Manson violated human trafficking law by bringing her to California from England for non-existent roles in music videos and movies.

He has previously called the allegations “provably false.”

In 2021, Across the Universe actor Wood named Manson as her abuser for the first time in an Instagram post.

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Wood and Manson’s relationship became public in 2007 when he was 38 and she was 19, and they were briefly engaged in 2010 before breaking up.

“He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years,” Wood said.

Manson replied on Instagram that these were “horrible distortions of reality.” He sued Wood, saying she and another woman fabricated accusations against him and convinced others to do the same. A judge threw out significant sections of the suit, then in November, Manson agreed to drop it and pay Wood’s attorney fees.

Other women sued Manson in the months after Wood came forward.

Manson emerged as a musical star in the mid-1990s, known as much for courting public controversy as for hit songs like “The Beautiful People” and hit albums like 1996’s Antichrist Superstar and 1998’s Mechanical Animals.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.