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Marilyn Manson receives fourth sexual abuse lawsuit

By | Published on Thursday 1 July 2021

Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson has been sued by a fourth woman accusing him of sexual assault. Model Ashley Morgan Smithline says that she first met the musician in 2010, when he said that he wanted to cast her in a film role. The allegations in her lawsuit include sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, human trafficking and unlawful imprisonment.

Smithline says that, having met Manson in the summer of 2010, he flew her to Los Angeles later that year, with her understanding being that he would cast her in a remake of ‘True Romance’. But the film project never emerged and when she arrived in LA he asked her to move in with him.

It was by flying Smithline from Bangkok, where she was living at the time, to the US under what she now believes to be false pretences that makes Manson allegedly liable for violating human trafficking laws.

“[Manson] knew these offers to be fraudulent”, says the lawsuit, according to Rolling Stone. “No effort was made to complete production of the film project and to date nothing from that project has been published. [Manson] merely used the film project as a pretence to lure Ms Smithline to the United States”.

Their first meeting was pleasant, she says, and she subsequently consensually entered into a relationship with the musician. However, soon after she began living with him he became physically abusive – including strangling, burning and whipping her, and on one occasion throwing “a Nazi knife at Ms Smithline, only barely missing her face”. She also details a number of violent sexual assaults, which she also spoke about in an interview with People earlier this year.

Smithline says that she continued to spend time with Manson, in between modelling jobs in Asia, until January 2013, despite the “severe mental distress” she suffered as a result. She adds that Manson told her that he would “find her” and “kill her if she left him”.

A spokesperson for Manson tells Rolling Stone: “We strongly deny Ms Smithline’s claims*.* There are so many falsehoods within her claims that we wouldn’t know where to begin to answer them. 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”.

Smithline is the fourth woman to sue Manson and is one of more than a dozen to publicly name him as an abuser. ‘Game Of Thrones’ actor Esmé Bianco, Manson’s former personal assistant Ashley Walters, and a third unnamed woman have all launched legal action against him. He has denied all allegations.



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