Following Evan Rachel Wood’s decision to name ex-partner Marilyn Manson (born Brian Hugh Warner) as her alleged abuser, February saw at least ten more women come forward to make similar accusations against the singer. One of those women, Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco (who played Ros during the show’s first three seasons), had previously testified alongside Wood in support of California’s Phoenix Bill (aimed toward lengthening the statute of limitations for crimes involving domestic violence).
Like Wood, Bianco also came forward in February with her own harrowing account (as detailed in a New York Magazine profile) of alleged physical abuse, which she says that Manson committed during a 2011 relationship. In the profile, she accused Manson of terrorizing her (with both emotional and physical abuse that included whipping, cutting, and bruising her, along with depriving her of sleep and food) during the two months that she lived with him. Her claims were corroborated to New York by Manson’s former assistant, Jessica Walters, who went on record with the publication. Bianco has now sued Manson and, in doing so, she has added human trafficking allegations to her list of accusations against the singer.
Granted, there has been word that the L.A. Sheriff’s department was investigating Manson over unspecified allegations, but Bianco’s filing counts as the first official legal action against the singer. Via Rolling Stone, here’s some of the language from the filing:
“Mr. Warner used drugs, force, and threats of force to coerce sexual acts from Ms. Bianco on multiple occasions,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Warner raped Ms. Bianco in or around May 2011.” It goes on to claim that Warner “committed sexual acts” with Bianco at times when she was unconscious or unable to consent, and lists the ways she claims he sexually battered her: “These acts include spanking, biting, cutting, and whipping Ms. Bianco’s buttocks, breasts, and genitals for Mr. Warner’s sexual gratification — all without the consent of Plaintiff.”
The “human trafficking” part of the filing refers to Bianco’s accusation of how Manson “employed fraud” to convince her to travel to the U.S. under the pretense of casting her in a music video (for his song “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies”) and a movie that was never filmed. Bianco complaint details how Manson allegedly “inserted himself in her visa process,” and she accuses him of locking her in a bedroom to stop her from leaving his home and forced her to carry out “unpaid labor.” Further, the complaint alleges that “Mr. Warner implied that because he had brought Ms. Bianco to the United States and provided housing, she owed him labor and sexual intimacy,” and he put her on display for his guests to “spank” her at his home.
The lawsuit contains several other disturbing allegations, including how, in 2009, Bianco did enter into a consensual sexual relationship with Manson. However, she accuses him of requiring her “to sit at his feet during press visits” and “verbally degrad[ing] her” before he allegedly “attempted to bring a minor back to the hotel with him and Ms. Bianco.”
In February 2021, Manson came forward with a blanket statement against the mounting allegations against him (prior to Esme coming forward) as “horrible distortions of reality.” He further declared, “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.”
In 2019, Bianco tweeted a photo of whip marks on her back in a now-apparent reference to Manson. “This is my back,” she wrote at the time. “The injuries you see are real. The whipping that I got here was filmed in the name of ‘art.’ Despite the many years that have passed since this happened my night terrors and PTSD symptoms continue to get worse. I am a domestic violence survivor and #IAmNotOk.”
(Via Rolling Stone & New York Magazine)