LOS ANGELES (AP) – Detectives are investigating allegations of domestic violence against rocker Marilyn Manson involving incidents that took place about a decade ago in West Hollywood, authorities said on Friday.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office for Special Victims opened an investigation after a woman approached authorities to report the allegations, said Sheriff’s Lieutenant John Adams. The incidents allegedly took place between 2009 and 2011, when Manson lived in West Hollywood.
“Our people are in the very early stages of an investigation,” Adams said. He did not describe the allegations or say when the woman came.
The news of the investigation came less than three weeks after actor Evan Rachel Wood publicly accused Manson, her former fiancé, of sexual abuse and other physical abuse, claiming that she was “manipulated into obedience” during their relationship.
Adams declined to identify the woman who contacted the Sheriff’s Department, as is the case with domestic violence.
Manson, 52, whose real name is Brian Warner, has denied Wood’s allegations of “horrible distortions of reality.”
Wood, 33, who plays the role of “Westworld” on HBO, had previously talked about abuse in a relationship, but did not name the person until he detailed the allegations on Instagram on February 1.
“My aggressor’s name is Brian Warner, known worldwide as Marilyn Manson,” Wood said. “He started taking care of me when I was a teenager and abused me horribly for years.”
The relationship between Wood and Manson became public in 2007, when he was 38 years old and she was 19 years old. They were briefly involved in 2010 before breaking up.
Manson responded to Wood’s accusations with his own Instagram post on the same day as her post.
“My intimate relationships have always been fully consensual with partners with the same idea,” his post said. “No matter how – and why – others now choose to distort the past, this is the truth.”
In 2018, Los Angeles County prosecutors refused to file charges against Manson on charges of assault, battery and sexual assault dating back to 2011, saying they were limited by prescriptions and lack of corroboration. The plaintiff in this case was identified only as a social acquaintance of Manson.
He denied the allegations through his lawyer at the time. The lawyer could not be contacted on Friday for comments.
The Associated Press does not normally name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but has named them Wood because of its decision to speak publicly.