Whatever the truth about the serious allegations levelled at entertainer David Walliams in ITV’s Power and Silence documentary, they raise, once again, important but familiar questions about how institutions and the law deal with such matters – and whether the present balance of power is right and fair.
An injunction has been lifted that prevented the allegations, some of which date back more than two decades, from being published. Walliams stands accused of grooming, sexual assault and a pattern of inappropriate behaviour towards women and girls, one as young as 15. Women who were sometimes children at the time of the incidents they describe have spoken frankly about how they felt, and feel today, about these encounters. Their accounts are harrowing.
