Nov 10 2026 - 2:55pm
The celebrity known in court as “PPT” has now been unmasked as comedian David Walliams, after weeks of speculation. And he might’ve kept his anonymity if it weren’t for those meddling hacks, who did their jobs.
Walliams’s lawyers sought to stop the Guardian and ITN publishing their joint investigation into claims of sexual misconduct against him, after he was approached for comment. The investigation heard from 30 sources, including women who say he pursued them when they were teenagers.
Last week, Mr Justice Nicklin accepted that publication of the accusations would materially increase Walliams’s risk of suicide. However, he ruled that safeguarding the comedian was a matter for mental health services, not the courts, and refused the injunction, warning that granting it would represent an exceptionally serious interference with press freedom.
The Guardian has now shared excerpts of a letter from Walliams, in which he admits to at times behaving “thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with”, but denies that he abused his celebrity status. He writes: “I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.”
Two of the women interviewed by ITN say they first met Walliams when they were 15. One claims he offered to help with her comedy writing. “I was just full of hope and excitement in terms of my career and that someone thought that I was good,” she recalls. Looking back, she believes his encouragement was a pretext: “He was doing that to, you know, ultimately try and sleep with me.”
Jade, also 15 at the time, says she told Walliams she had been sexually abused when she was younger. She alleges that, at his home, he lifted her top and “sucked on my breast”. She recalls that when she pulled away and said no, he told her: “We should wait until [she turned] 16.” Walliams denies any sexual contact with Jade.
Walliams’s emphasis on the time that passed before allegations surfaced is a familiar “bitch whistle”: if these women were harmed, why did they wait to speak? But delayed disclosure is common. Anyone with a passing knowledge of services for survivors will know that those who call for support may often be speaking for the first time about abuse they suffered as children or teenagers. CPS guidance recognizes that trauma, shame and guilt can inhibit reporting. It also notes that an accused person’s position of authority can affect whether someone comes forward at all.
When the accused is famous, as the reaction to Russell Brand’s accusers has shown, victims are routinely portrayed as vengeful liars bent on destroying men’s careers, or women who were asking for it really.
In the year since the Telegraph first reported that publisher HarperCollins had dropped him following allegations that he harassed junior female employees, Walliams has been quietly edged off the gilded escalator and will not reach the national treasure lounge he seemingly saw as his by right. Doubtless, this must be tough for him. But the attempt by his lawyers to gag journalists by invoking his vulnerability, against the backdrop of suggestions that press coverage contributed to Jason Arday’s death earlier this year, has done little to make the public amenable to him.
If criminal charges follow, a court will decide whether Walliams broke the law. But the years these women took to speak are no proof that they are lying, and the risk of suicide must never be allowed to stop journalists from doing their jobs. The allegations must be tested against evidence, but the press cannot be expected to wait for a verdict before reporting matters of public interest.
