Marilyn Manson in February 2020
Provocateur and musician Marilyn Manson (born Brian Hugh Warner), 52, is being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for domestic violence.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Special Victims Bureau is investigating allegation(s) of domestic violence involving Mr. Brian Warner also known as ‘Marilyn Manson,’ who works in the music industry,” the department said in a statement to Law&Crime. “The incidents occurred between 2009 and 2011 when Mr. Warner lived in the city of West Hollywood.”
Authorities did not specify the allegations in question, but this announcement follows actress Evan Rachel Wood, 33, naming Manson as her abuser and rapist. The timeline of the investigation overlaps with the timeline of the relationship. Wood, then 19, and Manson, then 36, got together in 2007, later became engaged in 2010, then broke up that same year.
“He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years,” Wood wrote in a Feb. 1 post on Instagram. “I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
Wood previously detailed the allegations against Warner in a 2018 testimony before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary, summarizing what she described as gaslighting, brainwashing, and mental and physical torture.
Four other women backed up Wood, sharing their own allegations against musician. Gabriella Accarino, Sarah McNeilly, Ashley Lindsay Morgan, and Ashley Walters described allegations usually ranging from controlling behavior to physical and sexual abuse. Actress Esme Bianco also later stepped forward with similar claims. Her attorney Jay Ellwanger said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had interviewed her, according to Vulture. The agency did not confirm this.
Manson is primed to fight any criminal case. He denied abuse allegations back on Feb. 1.
“Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but 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.”
[Image via Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]