Neil Gaiman and his estranged spouse Amanda Palmer were sued today in a trio of U.S. states by a former New Zealand nanny of their son. “This claim arises out of Defendant Neil Gaiman’s sexual abuse of Plaintiff, and his wife Amanda Palmer’s role in procuring and presenting Plaintiff to Gaiman for such abuse,” states the complaint filed by Scarlett Pavlovich, which seeks at least $1 million and a jury trial. (A PDF of the complaint filed in US District Court in Wisconsin is at the link.)

“Gaiman has a decades-long history of sexual misconduct consistent with the actions that will be described in the following paragraphs,” the 28-page complaint adds, and provides explicit details of a sodomy rape of Pavlovich by Gaiman in 2022.

The complaint says the Federal court has jurisdiction under the Trafficking Victim Protection Act. The suit was simultaneously filed against Gaiman in Wisconsin, where he currently lives, and against Palmer in the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the District of Massachusetts. Pavlovich lives in Scotland.

As for Palmer’s culpability, the complaint states:

…Scarlett had recently been unhoused and sleeping on the beach. Palmer was aware that Scarlett was economically insecure. Scarlett had also coped with substantial mental health difficulties over the years…

…Indeed, Palmer was sufficiently aware that Gaiman was likely to target Scarlett that she warned Gaiman to stay away from Scarlett before she brought Scarlett to Gaiman’s house as a babysitter. And Palmer was specifically aware that Scarlett was in an extremely vulnerable psychological state, such that any abuse by Gaiman would severely harm Scarlett. Indeed, Palmer specifically warned Gaiman as much before bringing Scarlett to Gaiman’s home. Yet Palmer never warned Scarlett of the known danger posed by Gaiman. Had Palmer warned Scarlett of the known danger posed by Gaiman, Scarlett would never have agreed to babysit Palmer’s child at Gaiman’s house.

As Deadline’s report (“Neil Gaiman Hit with Rape & Trafficking Lawsuits; Spouse Also Named”) notes, the case’s details align with sexual abuse allegations made by women in podcasts dating back to last July. The first two women’s allegations were reported in a Tortoise Media podcast on July 3, 2024 and a third later that month by a different podcast (see “Third Woman Accuses Neil Gaiman of Sexual Assault”), followed by another two in a subsequent Tortoise Media podcast (see “Two More Women Accuse Gaiman of Sexual Misconduct in New Tortoise Podcast”). Then two weeks ago, in “There Is No Safe Word” [Archive.is link] by Lila Shapiro, more details were provided and additional women came forward.

After the Shapiro article came out Gaiman made his first public response to the allegations (statement quoted on File 770), a complete denial of any non-consensual sexual activity.

Since then, Dark Horse Comics has canceled plans to publish his works, a UK stage production of Coraline has been abandoned, and Rhianna Pratchett opened a brief window for refunds from a Kickstarter project to publish a Good Omens graphic novel. It had already been announced last October that Gaiman has exited the final season of Good Omens, which has been reduced to a single 90-minute episode.